Suryakumar, Kishan, Dube the biggest gains in India's series of plenty

The biggest box ticked for India was Suryakumar Yadav returning to form. In 25 matches leading in to this series, he had scored just 244 runs at an average of 12.84 and a strike rate of 117.87. Not once did he reach 50 in those games. He kept saying he was out of runs, not out of form, but he was struggling against fuller lengths from fast bowlers; his strike rate against those deliveries was just 91.25. And of his 19 dismissals, 17 had come within the first 11 balls.

"When I got that break after the South Africa series, I went back home, packed my kit bag, kept it in the room and didn't do anything for nine-ten days," Suryakumar told the broadcaster after the fifth T20I on Saturday. "When the new year started, I started practising again. I thought about what went wrong in the last one year.

"When I was batting in '21, '22 and '23, first five balls, ten balls, my strike rate was around 200-250. I thought, 'let's start taking a little bit of time for the first five balls, seven balls, get my eye in'. Then, later on, if I play the next 10-15 balls, the strike rate would double. So I played a lot of match simulations, practised with friends who know me from the last 10-15 years. When I came to this series and started in Nagpur, I started feeling good. I took some time and slowly, slowly, we saw this other Surya."

Against New Zealand, only once was he dismissed inside 20 balls. His strike rate against fuller deliveries from fast bowlers also zoomed to 217.95. He made three half-centuries with a best of 82 not out and emerged as the leading run-scorer of the series. In five games, he scored 242 runs - almost the same he had scored in 25 games during his lean run - at a strike rate of 196.74.

Sanju Samson was far from at his best. Reinstated as an opener after a brief stint in the middle order, he played all five games. His scores: 10, 6, 0, 24, 6. That's 46 runs at an average of 9.20.

And it was not just the lack of runs. He hardly looked confident during his brief stays in the middle. His trigger movement - going deep in his crease, sometimes even towards the leg side - put him in trouble on more than one occasion. Twice he was bowled while exposing the stumps and once chipped a fullish delivery to short midwicket.

Still, it might not be a big headache for India, thanks to…

… Ishan Kishan grabbing his chances. Tilak Varma's unfortunate injury proved to be a blessing in disguise for India as they could give Kishan the whole series. He missed the fourth T20I with a niggle but did more than enough in the other four to present his case to be the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter at the T20 World Cup. He sounded the bugle with 76 off 32 balls in Raipur, kept it going with 28 off 13 in Guwahati and hit the crescendo with 103 off 43 at Samson's home ground in Thiruvananthapuram.

The only drawback of Kishan opening with Abhishek Sharma is that both are left-hand batters. That would make it six left-hand batters in the top eight as India are likely to play all of Tilak, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube and Axar Patel. However, the gulf between Samson and Kishan seems too big for the latter's left-handedness to be a deciding factor.

Rinku made it to the World Cup squad only after the selectors decided to put the Shubman Gill experiment off. Rinku had played just two T20Is since September and was left out for the South Africa series. But he proved his worth in the very first match against New Zealand in Nagpur. India had lost their sixth wicket in the 16th over but Rinku navigated a tricky phase with the lower order before going on an all-out attack to finish unbeaten on 44 not out off 20 balls. His innings took India to a dew-proof total of 238. In the field, he was brilliant as usual. Apart from his ground fielding, he took four catches in Visakhapatnam to equal Ajinkya Rahane's Indian record for most catches by a fielder in a T20I.

Dube flies under the radar most of the time. But his contributions with both bat and ball make him an integral part of the side. He showed his hitting prowess with knocks of 36 not out off 18 and 65 off 23. He had the second-best strike rate (248.93) in the series, after Abhishek's 249.31, and the best balls-per-six ratio (3.9). With the ball, he picked up 3 for 28 from three overs in the first T20I and 1 for 7 from one in the second. As India want batting till No. 8, his seam bowling could be a key component at the World Cup.

At the Asia Cup, India had consistently played three spinners. But Suryakumar made it clear that they would field two spinners at the World Cup. In fact, he almost confirmed bowling line-up.

"During the Asia Cup, the ground dimensions were completely different," he said. "It was a bigger ground and the wickets were a little on the slower side. So we needed that extra spinner. But in India, I think the wickets will be quite good. So two fast bowlers and two spinners is a good combination to go ahead with.

"With such a high-risk, high-reward game at the top, we definitely need an extra batter at No. 8. So Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel all bowling their quotas is a big boost. And then Hardik [Pandya] and Shivam Dube can chip in with two-two overs, some days maybe Abhishek Sharma too. So we have a lot of bowling options."

That means Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav will get a game only if India rest one of their first-choice players or deviate from their Plan A.