India’s captain Rohit Sharma was all praise for youngster Ravi Bishnoi who made an impressive T20I debut for the national team.
Bishnoi returned with impressive figures of 2-17 in his quota of four overs in the first T20I against West Indies at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Wednesday and played a key role in restricting the opposition at 157-7.
Bishnoi plumbed Roston Chase who was struggling to pick him, in front of the wickets. In the same over, the leg-spinner also accounted for Rovman Powell, to give a double blow to the opposition. The youngster bowled quick through the air and mostly bowled googlies, which the Windies batters had trouble picking up.
In fact, Bishnoi bowled six wide balls in his spell and his bowling figures could have been even better had he bowled the right lines. However, it was a great debut for the youngster and he was also awarded the Player of the Match for his fine performance.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “Bishnoi is a very talented guy which is why we drafted him into the squad straightaway. We see something different in him. He’s got lot of variations and skill-set with him. He can bowl at any stage and it gives us a lot of options to rotate the other bowlers. Very happy with his first game for India and he’s got a bright future and it’s just about us now on how we use him”.
This performance will certainly add a lot of confidence to Bishnoi, who was able to tick the right boxes on his debut. Bishnoi admitted that there was a bit of nervousness but he was also excited at the same time.
On the other hand, Rohit feels his team could have chased down the target earlier. The Indian captain had given a blistering start as he smashed 40 off just 19 balls. However, the middle order could not get going and it was Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer, who added the finishing touches. Yadav scored 34 off 18 balls whereas Iyer smashed 24 off 13 balls to get their team over the line.
Rohit added, “Should have finished that off a little early, wanted to be clinical. Happy with the win and we can take a lot of confidence from this game. Restricting them to that score was a great effort from the bowlers. With the bat we were not clinical and it’s something we can learn from”.
India was clinical with the ball but they could not get going with the bat. The hosts will look to continue their domination in the second T20I, which will be played at the same venue on Friday.
