The Indian cricket team is hopeful of securing its first series win under captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid after taking the lead 1 - 0 following a five-wicket win against New Zealand in the first match of the three-match T20I series.

Meanwhile, an incident involving Rohit Sharma and bowler Mohammed Siraj has left the internet in splits. A video that recently went viral shows the skipper jokingly slapping Siraj on the back of his head while Rahul Dravid remains unaware of the banter in the front row at the dugout. India successfully chased a target of 165, with significant contributions from Suryakumar Yadav (62 off 40 balls) and Rohit Sharma (48 off 36 balls) helping the national team reach the target in 19.4 overs. New Zealand had earlier scored 164 for 6, owing to half-centuries from Martin Guptill (70 off 42 balls) and Mark Chapman (63 off 50 balls).

Rohit Sharma explained during the post match presentation that chasing the target set by New Zealand proved to be difficult for them, especially towards the end. “It didn’t come as easy as we expected, so great learning for the guys, to understand what needs to be done, not about power-hitting all the time. As a captain and a team, happy that those guys finished the game off. A good game for us, missing a few players, opportunity to other guys to show their ability,” he had mentioned.

Why did Rohit hit Siraj??????#INDvNZ #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/EjqnUXts3v

— Bhanu?? (@its_mebhanu) November 17, 2021