Shreyas Iyer added a new feather in his short leadership tenure as the Indian captain became the first man to win 11 tosses in his opening 12 matches in T20Is. Iyer reached the milestone during the second T20I against Afghanistan on Tuesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Iyer was appointed the captain of the Indian T20I side after -winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav was dropped from the Indian team earlier this year. Iyer lost his first two series as Indian captain to Ireland and England, as the Men in Blue suffered six out of seven matches.
Iyer’s first T20I series win as an Indian captain came in Zimbabwe when they won 3-0. In the ongoing series against Afghanistan, India are 1-0 up. With this toss win on Tuesday, Iyer went past Qatar’s Mirza Baig and Philippines’ Henry Tyler, both of whom won 10 tosses of their first 12 T20I matches.
Notably, Qatar and Philippines are not full member sides and have gotten T20I statuses only. England’s Eoin Morgan and Mahmudullah Riyad of Bangladesh are the only two captains among full-member teams who are closest to Iyer. Both had won nine tosses each of their first 12 matches.
Iyer’s only toss loss came in the second T20I against Zimbabwe.
In contrast, Virat Kohli (India), Liton Das (Bangladesh) and Shai Hope (West Indies) had won only two tosses in their first 12 T20Is as captain, the least among full-member teams. Notably, none of them lead their respective countries in the shortest format any more.
meanwhile, Iyer won the toss and opted to field against Afghanistan. India lead the three-match series which is being hosted by Afghanistan 1-0, having won the opening T20I by seven wickets.
India were forced to make one change to their playing eleven with leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi replacing mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who has been ruled out of the series due to injury.
“Varun Chakaravarthy experienced sudden-onset discomfort in his left lateral abdominal region while bowling his third over in the first T20I. Scans have revealed a side strain, and he has subsequently been ruled out of the remaining two T20Is,” the BCCI said in a statement on Tuesday.
India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi.
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
