The 1st T20I between India and Australia in Canberra was called off due to rain, which had the last word on the proceedings.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav hammered his way to 39 while his deputy Shubman Gill smashed 37 to take India reached 97/1 in 9.4 overs when rain halted play for the second time.
And that proved to be decisive as the rules in the Australian capital city of Canberra say that the floodlights of the stadium have to be turned off at 11 pm local time because it is situated in a residential area. Due to that rule, the game had already been reduced to 18 overs per side.
Gill blasted 4 boundaries and a six off Matthew Kuhnemann in the 20 balls he faced, while Surya hit 3 fours and 2 sixes in 24 balls.
With those 2 sixes, SKY became the fifth batsman, after Rohit Sharma (205), Muhammad Waseem (187), Martin Guptill (173) and Jos Buttler (172), to hit 150 sixes in T20 Internationals.
Suryakumar, who scored just 100 runs in 2025 and had a strike rate of less than 110, demonstrated why he was once the top-ranked T20 batter in the world by picking up a delivery from Josh Hazlewood and hitting it over square leg fence.
Suryakumar needed that boost of self-assurance in his arsenal. The Manuka Oval strip’s strong bounce and carry, two crucial co-factors in the Indian captain’s game, only helped.
He continued to farm the strike till he reached 20, at which point, in the tenth over of the innings, he broke free from the shackles with an uppish square-cut, an off-drive, and a massive pull over mid-wicket for a six before the heavens opened up.
Gill, on the other hand, combined aggression and caution with a few powerful hits, such as a slog-swept six over cow corner off left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann that essentially opened the floodgates.
India had to endure two breaks through the 9.4 overs, and following the first break, the visitors scored 54 runs in the next 4.4 overs.
Additionally, because of the rain, Australian bowlers had trouble gripping the ball because it was getting wet.
Put into bat, India were 43/1 in 5 overs when heavy drizzle halted play, with Abhishek Sharma getting dismissed for 19, as he failed to clear the mid-off fielder after having already struck four boundaries.
The second T20I of the series is scheduled for October 31 at the MCG.
