Rohit Sharma Guides India To Clean Sweep In His First Series As Full-Time T20I Captain

Rohit Sharma batted in style and led with panache to script a near perfect tale on his full-time captaincy debut as India handed T20 World Cup runners-up New Zealand the ignominy of a 3-0 series defeat after a 73-run win in the third T20 International in Kolkata on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma batted in style and led with panache to script a near perfect tale on his full-time captaincy debut as India handed T20 World Cup runners-up New Zealand the ignominy of a 3-0 series defeat after a 73-run win in the third T20 International in Kolkata on Sunday. The Indian skipper first made a statement scoring 56 off 31 balls in India's 184 for 7 and then made some immaculate captaincy calls which witnessed New Zealand's surrender for a paltry 111 runs in 17.2 overs. It was a second back-to-back bilateral T20I series triumph with a clean sweep for India after beating the Black Caps 5-0 in their own den in 2020.

Axar Patel (3/9) bowled accurately and also got one to turn as his three wickets in Powerplay literally ended New Zealand's resistance and the rest was a mere formality.

The New Zealand team looked bone tired after a gruelling T20 World Cup campaign and the result won't be a fair reflection of the team's capabilities as they went through the motions for the better part of the three games.

For India, who were aiming to reset the button, the series win will certainly give them a few pointers going forward.

For Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid, this series was about checking what kind of ammunition they have going forward.