India hardly broke a sweat as they decimated the Sri Lankan batting and bowling lineups in their first two T20Is under head coach Gautam Gambhir and new full-time T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav. The latter himself played a big role both of India's wins, which helped them seal a series victory, smashing 84 runs in two matches at a strike rate of a whopping 221.05.

India's batters showed in these two games that they are going to continue with the template that was set with Rohit Sharma as captain and head coach Rahul Dravid, which was to put bowlers to the sword throughout the powerplay and keep a high strake for as long as possible. It was a template that won India the 2024 T20 World Cup.

"We spoke about this before the start of the series - what brand of cricket we want to play. This is the template we want to go ahead with," said Suryakumar after India's seven-wicket win in the second T20I. India bowled first and restricted Sri Lanka to a score of 161/9. Their chase was then reduced to eight overs and their target revised to 78 due to a lengthy rain delay just three balls into their innings. India made a mockery of the target, chasing it down in 6.3 overs. Suryakumar scored 26 in 12 balls.

'The rain helped us'

Suryakumar said that the rainy weather worked in India's advantage as they were able to prevent Sri Lanka from getting to a strong total. "With the weather around, anything below 160 would have been nice. Rain helped us. The way the boys batted was wonderful," he said.

Sri Lanka had made a good start to their innings and looked set to get a score close to or beyond 180. However, as was the case in the first T20I, a late collapse undid the visitors' advantage. While they had lost nine wickets for 30 runs in the first match, Sri Lanka lost seven wickets for 31 in the last five overs of their innings on Sunday. With one inconsequential game left, Surya was asked if there is a possibility of some of the reserve bench boys getting a look-in. “We'll sit and decide (when asked if they'll test their bench strength). Very happy for the boys. Showed a lot of character in tough situations,” he said.

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