India vs Sri Lanka 1st T20I: Kishan, Iyer seize the day

With regulars such as KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav absent, two batters grabbed their chance in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Lucknow: Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. Kishan, who had a strike-rate of 110 heading into Thursday’s match, finally cracked the opening puzzle this season with 89 off 56 deliveries, his highest T20I score. Iyer, who had been benched for two of the three West Indies T20Is, slammed an unbeaten 57 off 28, his fastest international fifty in the format.
An opening stand of 111 inside 12 overs between Kishan and captain Rohit Sharma (44 off 32) was capitalised upon India taking 44 off the last three overs courtesy Shreyas Iyer. A total of 199 for 2 was always going to be tough against Jasprit Bumrah & Co; Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka off the first ball of the chase to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and their pursuit never took off. The ball continued to grip in the second innings, negating the visitors’ expected advantage of winning the toss, and resulted in a massive 62-run win for the hosts.
Sri Lanka managed 29 for 2 in their Powerplay, whereas Kishan had propelled India to 58 for 0 after the first six overs, of which his contribution was 39 off 22.

That’s that from the 1st T20I.#TeamIndia win 62 runs and go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
Scorecard – https://t.co/RpSRuIlfLe #INDvSL @Paytm pic.twitter.com/S2EoR9yesm
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 24, 2022
Over the past couple of seasons, Kishan has had to develop his off-side game; his go-to hitting areas were midwicket and square leg – they still are – but he’s worked on his range on the other side of the ground as bowlers would go wider to deny him the slog.
“I was not good at playing shots through covers but I have worked a lot in this off-season. If I get the ball over there, definitely I’ll go for it because it’s something that you know every team plans for you. They know what is the weak spot and where they have to bowl to us. So we need to practice that in the off-season,” Kishan had said during IPL 2020.

In Lucknow, Kishan’s first three boundaries, successive ones off Chamika Karunaratne in the third over, were through the off side, both in front and behind square. He doesn’t really lean forward but reaches out instead to squeeze the ball into the gaps, like he did to run it past short third man a few times. Another standout was how he used the wrs, even while lifting the ball over midwicket where usually he gives it the big slog-swing of the arms.
Kishan had hit 56 off 32 as opener on his T20I debut against England in Ahmedabad last year. But he failed to fire at the top against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup, and kept getting stuck against West Indies at Eden Gardens – 35 off 42, 2 off 10 and 34 off 31.
For someone who becomes a runaway train when he gets going, Kishan – dropped on 43 – does have the tendency to suddenly stop in his tracks. It happened on Thursday, where he went without a boundary for 10 balls after entering the 70s. It wasn’t easy to hit, of course, when the bowlers took the pace off, but with Kishan, what can happen is he’ll start swinging harder and harder instead of getting off strike.

89 runs off 56 deliveries!
How good was that knock from @ishankishan51?
Live – https://t.co/RpSRuIlfLe #INDvSL @Paytm pic.twitter.com/VxfnW6NTrV
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 24, 2022
You can see why they want him to kickstart the innings. He’s opened all along for Jharkhand in T20s, so he has the experience, and strikes at 170.55 in seven opportunities at Mumbai Indians. He’s spoken about trying to learn from Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya how to keep the fielding side confused about your next move. The 16th over, from Lahiru Kumara, was a sampler of what Kishan has learnt, and what he can do.
He first swung a six over wide long-on, after which Sri Lanka moved three fielders in the deep to the off side – deep point, deep extra cover and long-off. It was obvious where Kumara was going to bowl. He went full and wide, but Kishan reached out to guide him past short third man for four. The next ball was wide too, but a slower full toss; Kishan went leg side now, hammering it to vacant deep midwicket for four more, and forcing the field to be changed again.
Shreyas surges
India were 155 for 2 in 17 overs when Kishan fell and Shreyas took over. Now Shreyas doesn’t have the range of a Suryakumar or a Pant, but when he targets his areas with clarity, he can be mighty effective.
His plan was simple; he’d move across, stand outside off stump and slog over long-on or whip it square. When the Sri Lankans bowled wider, he’d stretch to slice them over backward point. Both ploys came off pretty well, with two-thirds of Shreyas’ runs coming on the leg side.

A cracking half-century for @ShreyasIyer15 👏👏.
His 4th in T20Is.
Live – https://t.co/2bnp2QpJp5 #INDvSL @Paytm pic.twitter.com/udcM4uuaAY
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 24, 2022
Shreyas had walked in at No 3 in the 12th over, and the time Kishan fell, he was on 17 off 14. Even the set-up to the death overs turned out in his favour; he’d had the space to size up the conditions the time Kishan exited, and he had to make his move.

Shreyas was hoping he would be used as the eighth bowling option later, but India were happy to show off seven. However, such knocks – at the crucial No 3 position too – will increase the selection headaches for the management when it comes to narrowing down on the final T20 World Cup squad.