India vs New Zealand: Gill emerges as all-format batter, Sundar's finishing ability — takeaways from T20Is

Team India extended their successful start to the new year by handing New Zealand a sound thrashing in the third and final T20I in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. The two teams went into the decider at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on equal footing, with the Indian team having pulled off a nervy six-wicket win in Lucknow after suffering a 21-run loss in Ranchi last week. Many had expected the final white-ball game of the Indian home season to be a closely-fought affair, given the fight, the Black Caps had exhibited in the last two games.

The Men in Blue, instead, would end up dishing out one of their most clinical displays ever, winning by a record 168 runs to win yet another limited-overs bilateral series at home, a thrashing that mirrored their annihilation of the Sri Lankans in the final one-dayer in Thiruvananthapuram.

Read: India’s biggest-ever win, Gill outscores Kiwis and more stats

Powered by Shubman Gill’s maiden T20I century as well as vital contributions from Rahul Tripathi and skipper Hardik Pandya, Team India posted a humongous 234/4, making a terrific recovery after losing the wicket of Ishan Kishan with just seven runs on board.

As if their domination with the bat wasn’t enough, India would then strike with the ball in the very first over of the Kiwi chase and would soon have them on the mat by reducing them to 21/5. Daryl Mitchell and skipper Mitchell Santner tried adding some respectability to the New Zealand batting performance with a 32-run sixth-wicket stand, but it merely helped delay the inevitable as they would end up losing their last four wickets for just 13 runs, getting bundled out for a meagre 66.

Read: ‘Humongous win’, Twitterati hail hosts for record victory in 3rd T20I

The victory, India’s largest in the shortest format and the second-biggest among ICC’s Full Members, would preserve Pandya’s unbeaten run as skipper, the all-rounder having earlier led the Men in Blue to victory in the tours of Ireland and New Zealand last year as well as in the T20I series against Sri Lanka at the start of 2023.

With New Zealand’s tour of India coming to an end, albeit on a disappointing note for the visitors, it’s time for us to look back at some of the key takeaways from the three T20Is:

Gill firmly establishes himself as an all-formats player

There is little doubt about the fact that Shubman Gill has been the single biggest talking point in New Zealand’s tour of India.

After bossing the one-dayers in which he joined the 200-club in Hyderabad and followed it up with another ton in Indore, Gill had hit a roadblock with low returns in the first two T20Is, leading to some questioning his credentials as a T20 batter. The Gujarat Titans opener would not only silence the naysayers, but would also jump right to the top of the series batting chart with a magnificent 126 not out, bringing up the three-figure mark in just 54 balls and surpassing Virat Kohli’s record for the highest T20I individual score by an Indian in the process.

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