India VS New Zealand: Shubman Gill’s class, Washington Sundar's brilliance, Mohammed Siraj's resurgence & rain

If that sounds harsh, a quick look at most series played out after the 2022 T20 World Cup proves the point. 

The Australia-England ODI series was so ill-scheduled that England’s players openly complained about it being there in the first place. 

As for India’s tour of New Zealand, the persistent image that comes to mind when thinking about this particular white-ball tour was one of rain and players waiting to play to no avail. 

So, it wasn’t a fruitful tour by any means, with 4 out of the six matches being impacted by rain – and 3 of those four being washed out and having no result. 

However, it would be unfair to say the tour had no positives. There were three significant positives for the Indian cricket team coming out of this series. 

The first one is pretty obvious but bears repeating nonetheless – the series proved once again that Shubman Gill is a class act. 

The Punjab batsman is not only hungry to score runs but also extremely easy on the eye and possesses every shot in the book. It’s hard not to want him to succeed on the biggest stage. 

And he showed glimpses of his talent and potential with some decent performances atop the order. Whether or not he’ll be starting for India come the 2023 ICC World Cup remains to be seen, but he’s doing his chances of being named in the squad no harm at this point. 

The second major positive was the all-around brilliance of Washington Sundar. Again, this isn’t a big shock to either fan of Indian cricket or even the administrators. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">India was in big trouble with 121 for 5 then Washington Sundar scored 51 runs from 64 balls in a tough pitch.<br><br>Well played, Washington Sundar. <a href="https://t.co/1Rb282sUDA">pic.twitter.com/1Rb282sUDA</a></p>&mdash; Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) <a href="https://twitter.com/CricCrazyJohns/status/1597823640942571520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The fact that they have stuck with the Tamil Nadu all-rounder indicates that they believe in his talents, especially since he’s recently had more than his fair share of injuries. 

However, getting the unfortunate tag of being ‘injury prone’ has not hampered his career. 

And based on the type of performances he put in during this tournament, he deserves to be in the reckoning when fit. 

He was at his best in the final ODI, but even before that did well with both bat and ball when given a chance – and, fitness permitting, showed he deserves a long rope with the Indian side. 

And then there’s Mohammed Siraj, who had recently been discarded from the T20I scheme of things but was arguably India’s best bowler during the T20I leg of the tour. 

Siraj bowled with pace and purpose, hit the hard lengths and took plenty of wickets – and added himself in the mix as a valuable pace bowler to keep around in the squad. 

Of course, this tour will primarily be remembered for being a rain-hit disaster. But there were some excellent individual performances, too – and they should be considered while reshaping the team for the future.