Former Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane has showered praise on the Indian all-rounder Naman Dhir for turning things around with his 31-run knock off 17 balls in the second T20I against New Zealand on Sunday, October 24.
Interestingly, Dhir came out to bat at 70/5 in the 11th over. Nevertheless, he took on ace spinners Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell to turn the game towards India’s favour. Speaking on Sony Sports Network, Rahane reckoned that Dhir changed the entire momentum with his knock.
“What a turnaround. In the first 14-15 overs, if you see Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell’s spells, they dominated. I feel Naman Dhir’s innings changed the game completely. He took the risk there. He played a brave innings,” Rahane said on Sony Sports.
Further, the former Indian middle-order batter asserted that the Indian team is a World Champion because of multiple match-winners in its side. While Sanju Samson was the POTM in the first T20I, Tilak Varma was adjudged the player of the match in the second game for his 51* off 26.
“He hit three sixes in between. He scored 31 runs off 17 balls. I think the entire momentum changed from there, and Tilak Varma and Nitish Kumar Reddy finished the game after that. Why is the Indian team champions in this format? It’s because they have different match-winners,” he added.
After the game, Indian skipper Shreyas Iyer echoed Rahane’s sentiments, stating that the Indian T20I side has a lot of match-winners, hailing Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Dhir for playing match-winning knocks.
“I feel that every individual in our game is a match winner, and today we saw the example of that. Like, honestly speaking, when we lost wickets, consecutive wickets especially, we thought that the game was going away from us. But Tilak and Reddy, they showed immense character, and also a great cameo by Naman Dhir,” Iyer said after the game.
