India to a series win over Sri Lanka

Shreyas Iyer made the most of the chances that came his way, and he was right on the heels of Suryakumar Yadav as India took care of business in the third and final T20 International here on Sunday.

Shreyas hit 73, not out of 45 balls, to help his team get the job done in 16.5 overs after Avesh Khan and Mohammed Siraj hit many runs in the power play.

The Indian team has won its last three T20 home series against New Zealand, the West Indies, and now Sri Lanka, all 3-0.

READ MORE: Sunil Gavaskar: “No member of the team can say for sure…”

Short-ball game was once called into question by Shreyas, but now his game has been called into question again.

He made 200 runs in a single match, which earned him the Player-of-the-Series Award.

Shreyas and Suryakumar are both competing for a spot in the middle order.

Suryakumar was Player of the Series against the West Indies before breaking his right hand.

When Shreyas played the third match, it was clear that his practiced pull shots were under control.

He had been told to do this for hours at a time.

So now Rohit Sharma has a happy problem. He is the most capped player in T20 Internationals, with 125 games, one more than Pakistan’s ageless wonder, Shoaib Malik, who is still going strong at 40.

We had a “Super Subs” day with India making four changes to the team, including one player who had a head injury. They didn’t have to work very hard.

When Avesh and Mohammed Siraj bowled their first over, they put Sri Lanka on the back foot right away.

Both took advantage of the pace and bounce of the Dharamsala pitch.

On a cold night, even Ravi Bishnoi (4-0-31) and Kuldeep Yadav (4-0-25-0) did well enough to keep the islanders from getting out.

When Bishnoi started two years ago, he only bowled googlies, but he was so good at them that no one could figure out how good he was until now.

With a 74 not out from 38 balls, Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka was again the hero.

His team was close to the 150-run mark. She hit nine fours and two sixes in the game.

But it was Avesh (4-1-23-2) and Siraj (4-0-22-1), who just ripped apart the Lankan top order with speed and bounce.

The Lankans were bowled out for 11 in the fourth over, and there was no way back.

Siraj threw Danushka Gunathilaka (0) a short ball that he tried to pull but only managed to drag back to the stumps.

This time, Avesh changed things up from his usual back-of-length bowling style.

Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka hit the bat faster than they thought possible when Avesh bowled them.

Vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah, veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and first-choice wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took a break.

The captain and coach, Rahul Dravid, are slowly building a team with a lot of options for every single position in both the field and the batting order.

It’s the only thing that is missing from the T20 squad. Ravichandran Ashwin isn’t likely to play for India at the T20 World Cup in Australia so he won’t play.

Otherwise, the team looks healthy. The people who aren’t playing this series are Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul, so keep that in mind.

Ishan Kishan will get hurt, and Shardul Thakur will be rested at some point.

Suryakumar, Deepak Chahar, and Ishan Kishan are all on the team.

Yet Siraj, Avesh, and Harshal Patel (4-0-29-1) are all making their case for a place in the team for the big event eight months down the road.

Rohit might get hurt or lose his form, but even then, he won’t have to think about what to do.