The Indian team wound up its international cricket assignments for the year 2017 by winning the third and final match of the T20I series against Sri Lanka by five wickets.
After Rohit Sharma opted to chase – possibly influenced by the history of teams doing well while chasing at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the likelihood of heavy dew later in the night, the Indian bowlers restricted the visitors to 135/7. In the second half of the match, the Indian batsmen were tested by the Sri Lankan bowlers – who bowled good deliveries every now and then – but rode through the difficult periods and chased down the runs in the final over.
India’s win at the Wankhede Stadium came at the back of wins in Cuttack and Indore. The 3-0 series win against Sri Lanka was only the second occasion the Indian team had whitewashed an opponent in a T20I series comprising of three matches or more.
India’s Best Year in International Cricket
The year 2017 will go down in history as India’s most successful calendar year in international cricket – seen solely from the point of view of number of wins. In all, Team India played a total of 53 international matches in 2017 – winning 37 of them and losing only 12.
In the history of international cricket, only one team has bettered India’s tally of 37 wins this year; Australia, playing perhaps with their most competitive team and playing some of their best cricket, won a total of 38 international matches (only Tests & ODIs then) out of the 47 matches they played in the year 2003.
In the year that is drawing to an end, India played 4 Test series and won them all, consolidating the number one position in the ICC Test rankings. In ODIs, the loss to Pakistan in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in England was the only major blemish on what has been an outstanding year for the Indian team.
Barring that, Team India won every other series they competed in – defeating England at the start of the year, thrashing Australia at home, beating Sri Lanka home and away, and also defeating New Zealand and West Indies along the way.
In the 20-over format, Team India lost the one-off T20 against the West Indies and drew the home series against Australia. Other than that, the Men in Blue were victorious against England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
The year 2017 was productive for several of the players who donned the India jersey. Virat Kohli had another successful year with the bat and as captain, while Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan had their most productive years in Test cricket.
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Rohit Sharma’s Mega 2017
Rohit Sharma will have fond memories of December 2017. He earned the honour of captaining India in the home series against Sri Lanka, led the team to wins in both the ODI series and T20I series.
Rohit also formed a club of his own when, after scoring 208* in Mohali, he became the first player to score three ODI double hundreds. Courtesy that double hundred, he stretched his aggregate of runs in ODIs in the year to 1,293 – which made him the second-highest run-getter in ODIs in 2017. Rohit Sharma also set a new record for the most sixes hit by a batsman in a calendar year.
India’s Top Notch Bowlers
The Indian bowlers earned plenty of success and accolades in the year too. Though Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja fell out of favour and lost their places in the limited-overs team, they were both outstanding in Test cricket, collecting 56 and 54 wickets respectively in the year.
The pacers were impressive too; the quartet of Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma were all impressive at various points of time. Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav dominated proceedings with the white ball.
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