India have registered eight consecutive wins in bilateral T20Is against NZ.
A walk in the park
How happy would India be if only they could trade their success in bilateral series against New Zealand to that in ICC events.
It has become a sort of a pattern that New Zealand are no match for India in bilateral series but when it comes to the pressure games, be it in the 2019 ODI World Cup, the 2016 T20 world cup or the 2021 T20 World Cup, India have not been able to get the better of New Zealand when it really matters.
Equation flips in ICC events
All said and done, when it comes to bilateral series, India have overwhelmed New Zealand time and again so much so that they have registered eight consecutive victories against the opposition.
The victories have not only come in home series but while they have been touring as well. The last time India toured New Zealand for 5 T20Is, they ended up winning 5-0 with three wins coming via super overs.
In the last T20 series at home as well, India clean swept New Zealand by 3-0 and settled some scores after their defeat in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Dravid's take
This is what newly appointed coach Rahul Dravid had to say after the victory.
"It was a really good series win. Everyone played really well right through the series. It feels good, nice to start well. We are also quite realistic. We have to keep our feet on the ground and be a bit realistic about this win. Not easy for NZ to play a World Cup final and then to turn up three days later to play three games in six days, was never going to be easy for them. Nice from our perspective but we have to learn from this series and move forward."
"It's a long journey ahead over the next 10 months and we'll have our share of ups and downs. It's been really good to see some of the young guys come through. We have given opportunity to some of the boys who haven't played a lot of cricket over the last few months. We have seen some of the skills available to us and we have to keep building on those skills as we go forward."
