IND vs AUS: Ravi Bishnoi starred with the ball in India's just concluded home T20I series against Australia. The young leggie scalped took two wickets in India's six-run win in the fifth and final T20I of the series at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The 23-year-old won the Player of the series award for scalping nine wickets and also equalled Ravichandran Ashwin's all-time India record.
Bishnoi took nine wickets in five games of the series. He was by far the leading wicket-taker, being three scalps clear of the next best - Axar Patel, who had six wickets. His best outing came in the 2nd T20I when he took three wickets for 32 and helped India defend 235. Bishnoi has now equalled Ravichandran Ashwin's record for most wickets taken by an Indian player in a bilateral T20I series.
Ashwin held the record alone when he took nine wickets in India's home T20I series against Sri Lanka in 2016. It took seven years for someone to level the spin wizard with young prodigy Bishnoi taking nine wickets in the clash against Australia at home.
Notably, Bishnoi has also become the first Indian spinner to take wickets in 10 consecutive T20I matches. Pacer Ashish Nehra holds the record for taking wickets in most consecutive T20Is for India.
Talking about the India vs Australia T20I series, the Men in Blue defeated the Aussies 4-1 to clinch the series. India won the first two T20Is but suffered a loss in the third one which delayed their series win. But they came back strong in the fourth T20I to win it by 20 runs before clinching the nail-biter fifth T20I by 6 runs despite the chips being down. India scored 160 on a challenging Bengaluru track. The hosts were put in trouble when the Aussie batters threatened to steal the game away. Ben McDermott scored a fifty, while Tim David and Matthew Wade made notable contributions. Arshdeep Singh defended 10 runs in the final over.
