Shreyas Iyer-led India won the five-match T20I series against New Zealand 3-2 to end the first leg of the tour. The Men in Blue sealed the series early by winning the first three games. They suffered back-to-back defeats in the last two games. Given India's domination in the first half, it looked like they might go on to whitewash the home team. But NZ bounced back strongly to snap their losing run. India head coach Gautam Gambhir was criticised despite India's series win. The team management backed Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson in all five games. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi only got to play two games that Ishan Kishan missed due to an injury. The 15-year-old batter was dropped as soon as a fit-again Ishan Kishan made his return to the playing XI. Gambhir seemingly reacted to the criticism and sent a sharp message to his critics. "Built as a Team. Won as a Team. Always for India," he wrote on X. After being benched for the first game, Sooryavanshi finally played the second fixture. He departed for four. The left-handed batter returned to form in the third game and slammed 45 off just 19 balls. Sooryavanshi and Abhishek gave a dream start to India in the chase to the target of 199 and added 133 runs for the first wicket in only 7.1 overs. He was dropped for the next two games. Sooryavanshi is only part of the T20I team and he will play his next series against Sri Lanka in December. Following the T20I series win, the two teams will now lock horns in a five-match ODI series, starting November 4. The five games will be played on November 4, 7, 10, 13 and 15. Following the ODI series, they will square off in two Tests starting November 19 and 27. Iyer will lead the team in the last two ODIs as Shubman Gill and other Test regulars will leave the camp to prepare for the red-ball series. Rishav Narang is an experienced writer with nine years of experience in sports journalism. He extensively writes on cricket and covers live matches, b... View More