Shreyas Iyer hails India’s ‘flawless’ T20I series sweep over Zimbabwe

India captain Shreyas Iyer described his team's 3-0 T20I series sweep of Zimbabwe as "flawless", praising the players and support staff for executing plans perfectly. Head coach VVS Laxman also commended Iyer's leadership and the squad's winning mindset throughout the tour.

Harare: Captain Shreyas Iyer described India’s performance during their 3-0 T20I series win over Zimbabwe as ‘flawless,’ barring a few dropped catches, while praising the squad and coaching staff for coming together in executing team plans to perfection.

After suffering series defeats in Ireland (2-0) and England (4-0), Iyer got his maiden series victory as India’s T20I captain when the visitors sealed a clinical 35-run win in the third and final T20I over Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

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“I think we were flawless, honestly speaking, throughout the series, barring the catches that we dropped. But phenomenal effort by each and every individual, including the support staff and whatever we mentioned in the team meeting, executing it to the best of the abilities was something that we always looked up to.

“The approach was a notch above the others. So congratulations to each and every individual who have been part of this victory and thank you to VVS sir as well for motivating us and inspiring each and every day when we stepped onto the field. I think everything that you mentioned was apt and we could relate to it. So thank you so much and thank you to each and every individual,” said Iyer in a video posted on BCCI’s social media accounts on Monday.

VVS Laxman, who stepped in as India’s head coach for the series, lauded Iyer’s leadership and pointed out how the skipper bounced back after a tough start to his captaincy tenure to unite a largely fresh squad.

“Firstly, a big round of applause to everybody. We set out to win the series and that was what we aspired to do. I would like to congratulate Shreyas because he had a rough start to his captaincy career, but the way he came back and right from the first day when he joined us, one day before the first game, he was very optimistic.

“He was in fact looking forward to play with all of you. It’s a new group of players. We know that only four or five were there in England, joined us on this tour. But he was so confident and I think a lot of credit for this victory should be given to the captain. The way he encouraged each one of us. It was again a very collective effort.”

Laxman further spoke on how the squad embraced a winning mentality from day one of assembling in Zimbabwe. “We had one thing which we wanted to achieve. We wanted to exhibit the winner’s mindset. If you remember the first meeting we had before the first match, we said that as a team we can display the winner’s mindset and I think through the three matches, each one of you have displayed that.

“So congratulations on that. I would like to thank all the coaches, all the support staff and Amit and the manager for your efforts through the series. Sometimes we don’t realise how important a role you all play. So thank you very much for your commitment towards making sure that our players were ready for this series and through the series. All of you have made sure that they are best prepared for each and every match. So thank you to each one of you.”