It was a near-perfect start for Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma as they began their new innings in India cricket as India beat New Zealand by five wickets in Jaipur to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series. Winning the toss, Rohit Sharma sent New Zealand to bat first, and fantastic fifties by Martin Guptill (70 off 42) and Mark Chapman (63 off 50) powered them to 164-6 in 20 overs. In reply, India got off to a blistering start as Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul smashed Blackcaps bowlers all over the park. KL departed for 15 as Suryakumar Yadav joined Rohit in the middle.

The duo added 59 runs for the second wicket, with Rohit taking the aggressor’s role. However, that didn’t stop Suryakumar Yadav from flexing his muscles. Rohit scored 36-ball 48, and Suryakumar Yadav hit 62 off 40 balls. “I’ve been doing nothing different, I try to bat the same way in the nets and replicate the same in the game. I put a lot of pressure on myself in the nets, if I get out I go into the dressing room and think what better I could have done,” Surya said after the match. “The ball was coming on nicely with the dew coming in and later on it became really slow but at the end happy to be on the winning side,” he added.

Trent Boult dismissed the Mumbai-batter, but the New Zealander had earlier dropped SKY on 57 while fielding at fine leg. The 31-year-old Indian batter found a sunny side to it; he said it was the perfect gift for his wife on her birthday. “About Trent, It’s my wife’s birthday also and it’s a perfect gift from him.” Venkatesh Iyer the left-handed opener for Kolkata Knight Riders, who set the IPL 2021 phase two one fire with his explosive batting has been handed his maiden Team India cap on Wednesday, November 17.

The 27-year-old all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh became the first player to make his debut under captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid The Indore-born player represents Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit, and he was once a CA aspirant but decided to sit out his finals in order to focus on cricket. Venkatesh Iyer the left-handed opener for Kolkata Knight Riders, who set the IPL 2021 phase two one fire with his explosive batting has been handed his maiden Team India cap on Wednesday, November 17. The 27-year-old all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh became the first player to make his debut under captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid.

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The Indore-born player represents Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit, and he was once a CA aspirant but decided to sit out his finals in order to focus on cricket. He has so far played 10 first-class games and scored 545 runs at an average of 36.33. His highest score is 93. In IPL, he made his debut in the UAE phase of IPL 2021 and scored an unbeaten 41 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, as Kolkata won the match by nine wickets. He has played 10 games in the IPL and has scored 373 runs at an average of 41.11 and a strike rate of 128.47.

He is also a handy customer with the ball, he played a crucial role when KKR handed in the ball in the middle overs when Andre Russell was out injured. Iyer was rewarded for his consistency after his stellar season with KKR in the Indian Premier League 2021. Before the start of this series, Iyer had said that wants to do the same for Team India after getting the maiden call-up. Talking about the match, India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to field against New Zealand in the first T20I of the three-match series, here on Wednesday. Speaking at the toss, Rohit confirmed that all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer is making his T20I debut for India in today’s match.

“We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, though behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practicing for a couple of days. It’s been good, it has been only 2 days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days at home and back here. But it’ll be good for the team,” said Sharma. “We have Shreyas Iyer back, Venkatesh is debuting, Bhuvi, Siraj, and Chahar are back. We’re playing three seamers and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it’s a lot of time ahead, we’ll try our options, some results might not be immediate, but the process will be crucial,” he added.