IND vs NZ: Hardik Pandya hands trophy to Prithvi Shaw following series win in Ahmedabad

Following the 2-1 series win to New Zealand, India skipper Hardik Pandya handed the winning trophy to Prithvi Shaw to lead the celebrations at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Team India outright dominated the visitors in the series decider by 168 runs courtesy of a record-breaking ton (126*) by opener Shubman Gill followed by a brilliant bowling performance that wrapped up the contest.

Records tumbled as Gill surpassed Virat Kohli (122*) to register the highest individual score by an Indian in T20Is. Furthermore, the Men in Blue also registered the biggest win (168) by margin of runs, surpassing the 143 runs against Ireland in 2018.

Following the series win, Hardik Pandya, who collected the trophy from the BCCI President Roger Binny & the BCCI Honorary Secretary Jay Shah at the post-match presentation, interestingly, handed it to Prithvi Shaw, who did not feature in a single game. Earlier, Hardik was slammed for not handing the youngster a chance in the series.

Shaw last featured in a T20I match in July 2021 against Sri Lanka. Since then, the right-hander has been struggling to make his spot in the playing XI whereas Gill, who has been backed by the management numerous times, has instilled faith with his impressive outings.

I take calls on my own because I like to take ownership: Hardik Pandya

Hardik has returned with back-to-back series wins since taking over as the skipper of the side in the T20Is. In the post-match presentation following the series win, Hardik stated that he takes the decisions himself and takes the burden on his head if something goes wrong.

"I have got a very simple rule about my life and captaincy: if I go down, I will go down on my decisions. So at the end of the day, I take calls on my own because I like to take ownership. When I played the IPL final, I felt the second innings was spicier. We want to normalise these pressure games, and hopefully, we can do better at bigger stages,” said Hardik.