Team India is all set to host New Zealand in a three-match T20I series, starting November 17. The focus will be on Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid. The right-handed opener was appointed the captain of India’s T20 team after Virat Kohli relinquished his captaincy. Already captaining the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, the 34-year-old has already captained India in T20s 19 times. Out of which he won 15 times and lost 4 times. Two of those defeats have come against New Zealand.
With Rohit Sharma at the helm, India will be against a buoyant team who beat them in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup and in the 2019 ODI World Cup.
The Men in Blue, despite a better head-to-head record, have always found the New Zealand cricket team a tough nut to crack in ICC tournaments.
Under Rohit, the Indian T20I team also has a win percentage of 78.95. This is the second-best among 53 captains in T20Is from Test-playing nations.
He leads Sarfaraz Ahmed and Temba Bavuma but trails former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan, who has a win percentage of 80.77 with 42 wins and 10 defeats from 52 T20Is.
Across T20s, Rohit has the second-best win % among the 19 other captains. The 2007 T20 World Cup winner has served as captain in 153 T20s so far, winning 96 matches and losing 57 with a win percentage of 62.75. He trails Shoaib Malik, who has a win percentage of 63.91.
As T20I captain, Rohit has scored 712 runs, hitting two centuries and five half-centuries. He is the only T20I skipper with two tons.
The first T20I will be played in Jaipur, Sawai Mansingh Stadium. The second of the three-match series will be played in Ranchi on November 19 and the third and the final one will be played in Kolkata at the Eden Gardens on November 21.
On the eve of New Zealand T20 Internationals, Dravid admitted he will have to think long-term but also need to focus on ensuring that the team is on winning way.
“You can’t coach different teams in the same way. Certain principles of coaching will never change. But of course the teams that you coach, they come with unique set of challenges, unique set of requirements,” Dravid told
