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India's pacer Avesh Khan made his T20I debut in the third Twenty-20 match between India and West Indies on Sunday (February 20).
After the match, 25-year-old admitted that he had butterflies in his stomach when he got to know that he is going to make his debut against Caribbeans. But captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid backed him up and told him to enjoy his game. Although, Avesh remained wicketless in a spell of four overs in which he conceded 42 runs but the thing for which he has been working hard was finally got fulfilled.
"Nervousness is bound to happen. When I got to learn that I am playing, making my debut I was a little nervous because the thing for which I have been working hard was finally going to get fulfilled," Avesh told team-mate Venkatesh Iyer in a chat published on BCCI TV.
"Rohit bhai (Rohit Sharma) backed me, Rahul sir (Dravid) told me to enjoy my debut game. This day is not going to comeback again and I just enjoyed." Having achieved his first goal, the 25-year-old right-arm pacer now wants to serve Indian cricket for long," Avesh added.
Avesh got a golden deal with Lucknow Super Giants who rope him for a whopping price of Rs 10 crore in the mega auction for the upcoming IPL season.
"It was a nice feeling. Every player has a dream to play for India and my dream got fulfilled today (Sunday). I am feeling very good. I enjoyed the moment, the entire match and we won the match as well. I will try to serve the Indian team as much as possible," Avesh said.
Indian seamers fired in unison after Suryakumar Yadav's belligerent fifty as the hosts coasted to a series-sweeping 17-run win over the West Indies in the third and final T20I here on Sunday.
After Deepak Chahar limped off the field after failing to complete the third over due to a hamstring injury, Harshal Patel (3/22), Venkatesh Iyer (2/23 from 2.1 overs) and Shardul Thakur (2/33) performed their tasks impressively to defend India's 184/5.
Wicket-keeper batter Nicholas Pooran continued his fine form slamming a third successive fifty (61 off 47 balls; 8x4, 1x6) but it was not enough as West Indies managed just 167 for nine.
For Rohit, it was his third successive clean sweep as fulltime skipper, having earlier defeated New Zealand (0-3) in T20Is and West Indies (0-3) in ODIs. The win also matched their 2020 record of nine successive victories on the trot.
For the West Indies, this was their third successive bilateral series defeats away from home, 0-2 to New Zealand in 2020-21 and 0-3 to Pakistan 2021-22 -- as they capped a forgettable India sojourn losing six matches on the trot (including three in the ODI leg).
