Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravi Bishnoi, the Indian spin trio were on fire in the fifth and final T20I against the West Indies on Sunday, dismissing all ten opposition batters.
Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel picked up three wickets each, while Ravi Bishnoi bagged four for 16 to register his career-best T20I figures.
Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravi Bishnoi Shared All 10 Wickets Between Them, And For The First Time Spinners Picked All Wickets In A T20I
In the fifth T20I against West Indies on Sunday (August 7), India included three spinners – Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravi Bishnoi – in the playing eleven, and all three of them were on fire. The trio shared all 10 wickets between them, and in the process, created a new world record.
It was the first time in the history of T20Is that all 10 wickets of the opposition team were picked by the tweakers. Axar Patel started the proceedings by picking up the first three wickets and then Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi joined the party to share the remaining seven wickets as the hosts could only manage to score 100 runs in reply to India’s total of 188 runs for the loss of seven wickets.
For India, Player of the Match Axar Patel ended the game with figures of 3-1-15-3, while in his first game since IPL 2022, Kuldeep Yadav dismissed three batters for just 12 runs in his four overs, out of which one was a double-wicket maiden. However, Ravi Bishnoi was the highest wicket-taker for the Men in Blue in Lauderhill as he registered career-best figures of 4 for 16 in 2.4 overs.
It marks the first occasion in T20 Internationals since the first was played in 2005, that all ten wickets in an innings were taken by spinners. India’s utter dominance contrasted sharply with a confused West Indian batting effort which started with former captain Jason Holder being pushed mystifyingly to the top of the order.
It ended with an abject capitulation as the last six wickets tumbled for 17 runs. It only served to magnify the excellence of Shimron Hetmyer’s commanding 56 which came off 35 balls and was highlighted by five fours and four sixes.
Shreyas Iyer Opened The Innings For The First Time In T20Is And Top Scores With 64 As India Made 4 Changes In 5th T20I
Having already won the series, Team India made four changes for the final game of the West Indies tour, and in place of skipper Rohit Sharma, it was Hardik Pandya who led the side. Hardik was one of the four changes that India made for the fifth game. Apart from him, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer were included on the side in place of Ravichandran Ashwin, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rishabh Pant.
In the fifth match, which was played in Lauderhill, India had another new opening combination as, on this occasion, it was Shreyas Iyer who opened the innings alongside Ishan Kishan. Shreyas Iyer has played as an opening batter for the Delhi Capitals during his initial years in the Indian Premier League but had not played as an opener for India until Sunday.
In his maiden game as an opening batter, he smashed a fifty and top-scored for India by making 64 runs from 40 balls. Left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh, who took seven wickets in series, was named man of the series.