5 positives Team India can take from Nidahas Trophy 2018
After losing the first match of the Nidahas Trophy 2018 to hosts Sri Lanka, the Indian Cricket Team played an aggressive brand of cricket to win 3 back-to-back matches and seal its spot for the final of the tournament. Therein, the Men in Blue completed a thrilling last-ball finish and beat Bangladesh by 4 wickets to lift the glorious trophy.
The national selectors decided to rest few key players for this tri-series - MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Jasprit Bumrah. They gave a few national call-ups to youngsters who had demonstrated their potential in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the domestic season.
Most of these youngsters grabbed this chance and put in some good performances through the length of the series.
It was a good tournament for Team India, where they won 4 out of the 5 matches they played. Keeping 2019 World Cup in mind, the team management checked the bench strength of the team so as to ensure the quality of its backup in case of any injuries to regular players.
Here we look at the 5 positives they can take from the Nidahas Trophy 2018:
#5 Washington Sundar's bowling in the powerplay:
Washington Sundar played for India in the Under 19 World Cup which was held in 2016. He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu against Mumbai in 2016 and performed well in the domestic circuit, scoring 532 runs in 12 matches with a best score of 159.
Before coming into this tournament, Sundar had only played one T20I match for India, which was against Sri Lanka in December 2017. In this tri-series, the young lad was trusted by Rohit Sharma in the powerplay overs.
Sundar surprised everyone with his stump-to-stump bowling. In the powerplay overs, he did not allow the opposition to score runs with ease. The youngster put pressure on experienced international batsmen by not only restricting the run-flow, but also picking up crucial wickets at regular intervals.
Overall, he took 8 wickets in the powerplay overs that he bowled in the five matches and went for an economy rate of less than six. Despite playing on his first tour outside India, Sundar did not look overwhelmed and relished the challenge of bowling in the first six overs.
His best figures of the series were 3/22, which came against Bangladesh on March 14. He also won his first Man of the Series award on the tour.
He has a strong chance of being selected in the Indian T20I squad that will tour England later this year.