Suryakumar-led India waltz into new era, planting their flag for fun

Fourth ball he faces as India's permanent T20 captain, Suryakumar Yadav shuffles over to the offside, turns a middle-stump delivery into a length ball on his legs, whips his powerful wrists through, and plinks the ball high into the stands, and off the concrete railing. It goes off bouncing merrily off into the dark patches behind the stadium, like a prison escapee, never seen again this evening, never again bruised by an India bat.

All through their run to 213 off 7 in the first T20I against Sri Lanka, India's batters would roll out state-of-the-art T20 shots - shovels over the shoulder, swipes across the line to launch low full tosses into the grass banks, half-sweep-half-smears against the spinners. But none is as striking as this Suryakumar shot, against one of Sri Lanka's fastest bowlers, Dilshan Madushanka. It feels as effortless as it was effective.

The obvious pronouncement is that in this batting innings India, and Suryakumar, were out to produce a statement of intent. To impose themselves afresh on a new era. But as his innings goes on, it doesn't feel that deep. It doesn't strike you as being that serious.

After the openers had frolicked their way to 74 in the powerplay on a batting friendly surface against bowlers who were missing their lengths, what is a No. 3 batter to do but extend this rampage? How else to play but without fear or inhibition?

You watch Suryakumar flit around the crease like it is his personal dancefloor, you watch him moonwalk when he needs to make room to hit through off, pirouette as he hits behind square leg, dip gracefully into his sweeps, and you begin to realise that although Suryakumar is now the captain of the most-followed cricket team on the planet, this is an utterly light, and flowing style of play.

It was only weeks ago that they cast off their biggest millstone. Celebrations stretched for weeks in places in India, but for many, relief was the chief emotion. India have been cricket's most consistent team in the past 10 years, but had had no major trophy to show for it. At Pallekele, they played like a team that knows how to float. How to keep it light.

Suryakumar discos his way to 58 off 26 balls, as Sri Lanka's bowlers seize up against a batter operating with such unfettered creativity. Rishabh Pant thumps his way to his highest T20I score since coming back from that horrific car crash and injury. At one point in the 19th over, Pant just about flicks Matheesha Pathirana over short fine, but manages to fling his bat aerially most of the way to backward square leg.

When they set out to defend this score, India come up against Pathum Nissanka playing what is arguably the best T20I innings of his career so far, but at no point appear flustered. Eventually Axar Patel fools him with a straighter one, which Nissanka had expected to turn. This is what it's like to play in the afterglow of a World Cup win, Axar later said.

"We knew that we had a good score on the board, and I know that they were going at 10 runs an over. But we all were talking that the game is still on. We already put the score on the board - they had to make the score," Axar said at the press conference. "We also knew from our innings that the old ball is not easy to hit. We knew we were one wicket away, and they collapsed also. That's what we were thinking."

This is also now a team for whom T20 thinking is embedded deep into their cricketing DNA. Their freshly-retired greats - Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli - had had to learn how to put less of a price on their wickets. That generation of batters was required to undertake serious recalibrations. It had taken batters time to accept that scores like 14 off 6 or 27 off 16 (the kinds of innings childhood batting coaches would shoutingly insist were wasteful) are frequently more useful in T20s than much more substantial innings at lower strike rates.

When Suryakumar skipped inside the line to launch that ball into the night, and as his team shimmied its way through much of this match, it felt too, that if this truly was a new era for the India team, they were planting the flag for fun.