Rohit Sharma's golden run as captain of the Indian cricket team continued on Thursday with the Men in Blue notching up their 13th consecutive victory in the shortest format under 'Hitman'.
India put the disappointment of the stunning seven-wicket loss in the fifth and final Test against England at Edgbaston behind with a rousing all-round performance against the hosts in the first of the three T20Is, the action moving further south to the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
India, without key names such as Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja for the series opener, posted a commanding 198/8 on the board. The Bhuvneshwar Kumar-led attack would then keep the hard-hitting English batters, who recently broke the record for the highest total in ODIs in Netherlands, quiet. The former world T20 champions were dismissed for 148, 50 short of the Indian total.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya was at the centre of India's dominant performance, smashing a 33-ball 51 before grabbing 4/33 to become the first Indian to score a fifty and register a four-fer in the same match in T20Is. Pandya would later go on to be adjudged the Player of the Match.
The match also witnessed Arshdeep Singh's international debut, the Punjab Kings left-arm seamer grabbing 2/18 in 3.1 overs. Also notable was Bhuvneshwar's economical spell as the veteran seamer conceded just 10 runs in three overs and dismissed skipper Jos Buttler for a golden duck.
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Rohit had earlier served as stand-in captain whenever Virat Kohli, the former all-formats India skipper, was rested. Rohit's winning streak began in the series against Bangladesh at home in November 2019, in which the Men in Blue bounced back from a loss in Delhi with victories at Rajkot and Nagpur to take the series 2-1. Three months later, he would lead India against the Black Caps in the fifth and final T20I, helping the side complete an emphatic series sweep.
The Mumbai Indians captain was then was appointed full-time India skipper for the first time during the Men in Blue's T20I assignment against New Zealand at home right after the disappointing T20 World Cup campaign last year, with the hosts emerging victorious 3-0.
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That was followed by similar whitewashes of West Indies and Sri Lanka at home, around the time he was appointed the leader across formats after some turbulence between Kohli and the board.
Rohit will lead India in the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, his first major tournament as India captain since the 2018 Asia Cup.
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