Gautam Gambhir speaks with Suryakumar Yadav for a long time after winning his first T20 series as India’s coach.
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In the second Twenty20 International match played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Sunday due to weather, the Indian side won easily, clinching the series. Rain delayed the game for the second time during India’s chase, reducing the goal from 169 for nine in 20 overs to 78 in eight overs. With nine balls remaining in the match, Hardik Pandya’s two consecutive boundaries made it an easy win for India at bat.
Kusal Perera’s half-century helped Sri Lanka recover from their loss in the first match of the series on Saturday. The batsman also contributed to a couple of fifty-run partnerships, and the home team was in a strong position at 130/2 after 15 overs. They lost seven wickets for just 39 runs in the last overs, though, and could not muster a respectable total.
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Three balls into India’s innings, rain came in Pallekele, halting play for more than an hour. Even after losing Sanju Samson to a golden duck, the Indian hitters completely embarrassed the new target when play resumed. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Suryakumar Yadav set the tone with a 39-run partnership in only 13 balls, while Hardik finished with an undefeated 22 off just nine balls to enable India win the series for the second time in a row against Sri Lanka.
This was Suryakumar’s first series as a full-time T20I captain, and it was an excellent start for both Gautam Gambhir, the team’s new head coach, and the Indians. After the game, the two were observed having extended and passionate conversations, albeit the content of their conversation was not made clear by the audio that was available.
In the post-match press conference, Suryakumar discussed the kind of cricket that India wants to play as they prepare for the 2026 T20 World Cup. They intend to follow the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid formula, which helped the team win the T20 World Cup last month.
“We discussed our preferred style of cricket to play before to this competition. This is the framework we would like to use moving forward, no matter how short the objective is or what else we are seeking,” he stated.
