Shreyas Iyer marked his latest outing as India's T20I captain with his first century in the format, an unbeaten 102 off 43 balls, as India beat West Indies by eight wickets in the series opener at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on October 6. The win, built around a chase of 172 completed with more than five overs to spare, gives India a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Put in to bat, West Indies were bowled out for 171 in 19.1 overs, with captain and wicketkeeper Shai Hope top-scoring with 52. Contributions from down the order — including Rovman Powell, Brandon King and Romario Shepherd — kept West Indies moving, but India's attack was able to break through regularly enough to prevent any single partnership from taking the total out of reach.
India lost both Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson relatively cheaply in the chase, but any hope West Indies had of building pressure disappeared once Iyer found his range. He reached his maiden T20I hundred off 43 balls, striking 11 fours and 6 sixes, and finished unbeaten as India got to 172 for 2 in 14.4 overs. Ishan Kishan played the ideal foil at the other end, closing out the chase unbeaten himself while Iyer did the bulk of the scoring.
Iyer took over as India's T20I captain in June 2026, succeeding Suryakumar Yadav, and an unbeaten century in only his latest assignment in the role is as strong a statement as he could have made with the bat. It also arrives in the same Lucknow venue where Iyer has previously scored heavily in domestic cricket this year, adding to the sense of a batter in red-hot form heading into a long home white-ball season.
The eight-wicket margin, with 32 balls unused, was about as emphatic a start to the series as India could have asked for. Attention now turns to the second T20I in Ranchi on October 9, where West Indies will be looking to respond after a top-order-heavy batting effort was not enough to defend a competitive total. India, by contrast, will want more contributions from the top of the order to reduce their reliance on a middle-order rescue act, however spectacular it proved to be in Lucknow.
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Scores, individual figures and match details in this article are verified against same-day match reports and freshly re-checked reporting as of October 7, 2026.
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