Nidahas Trophy 2018: Positives for India from the series

The Nidahas Trophy 2018 came to a fitting end with the tournament favorites, team India, winning the title in an absolute thriller. The series, that was played to mark the independence celebration of Sri Lanka, saw the hosts crash out before the finals. Yet, the joy on the faces of the Sri Lankan fans after the Indian win spoke volumes about the nature of the game.

The Indian team showed great spirit by performing the lap of honor with the Sri Lankan flag and the lovely gesture was widely appreciated. Earlier in the finals, it was a last ball six from Dinesh Karthik that sealed the ultimate glory for the Men in Blue. It was a cliffhanger in Colombo that was on display in the finals. Certainly, the end could not have been better considering the fact that the tournament was being tagged as a boring one.

Many critics even questioned the tournament’s place in the busy calendar of the Indian team. Furthermore, the prospect of India playing against their neighbors for the third time in a span of six months did not go down well with many. However, now the smiles are back on each and every Indian cricket fan. But when analysed on a microscopic scale, what did team India gain out of this series? Here is an analysis of the positives that the Men in Blue would surely take from this short tri-series.

Here are the Positives for India from the Nidahas Trophy 2018:

1. Rohit Sharma hits his good patch again

When the series commenced, the stand-in Indian captain Rohit Sharma, was under tremendous pressure. Rohit had failed in the three T20Is in South Africa. Also, his run in the Tests and ODIs against the South Africans, save a century in Port Elizabeth, was far from being impressive. He certainly needed to up his game and get back to form. The first three games proved to be failures for him.

However, he did manage to strike form at the right time in the series. Rohit played a handsome knock of 89 runs in the final league game of the team. And in the finals, it was Rohit’s guiding 56 that kept India alive in the run chase.

Furthermore, another positive that the Indian team can take from Rohit’s performances is his leadership skill. Rohit has already proven his leadership talent with three IPL title wins for the Mumbai Indians. And now, he has shown that he can replicate it at the highest level. The Indian camp now have a very able back up skipper in the ranks.