Nineteen matches. NINETEEN. That’s how many times India and Sri Lanka played each other in 2017, and the last of those matches came to an end at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night. It was one of those rare occasions when the cricket was actually compelling between the two sides, with an oddly behaving pitch making things interesting till the end.

The required run rate kept hovering around 8 and it was finally in the 19th over the decisive blow came from Dinesh Karthik. With nine runs needed from 7 balls, Nuwan Pradeep bowled a rank full toss that was duly dispatched over midwicket for six. In the end, it was MS Dhoni who applied the finishing touches - against Sri Lanka, at Wankhede - to help India complete a 3-0 sweep in the T20I series.

Yes, it was not the most competitive series. Yes, Rohit Sharma and Co had things easy for the most part – perfectly summed up by that full toss from Pradeep. But when the men in blue look back on this series, here are three players who made sure they ended their reputations enhanced at the end of 2017.

(Note: Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are not added here because, well, their reputations didn’t need any further enhancing)

Jaydev Unadkat

This is how Unadkat’s T20I series went: 1 for 7 from 3 overs in Cuttack, 1 for 22 from 3 overs (in a match where 432 runs were scored in 37 overs) in Indore and 2 for 15 from 4 overs in Mumbai.

These numbers were enough to earn him the man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series awards in his comeback series.

Unadkat was one of those pacers ear-marked for a run in the Indian side from a very young age but things did not quite pan out for him. The odd call up against Zimbabwe was all he had to show for, for his promise. But 2017 was the year he made his IPL performances count, taking the Rising Pune Supergiant to the final – he was one of Steve Smith’s most potent weapons throughout the tournament.

And with Ashish Nehra retiring, there was a void in the Indian team’s set-up, in the form of a left-arm pacer. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have owned the limited overs formats, but the variety that the pace attack needed had to come from somewhere else. And in Unadkat, India have found a back-up option that should hold the team in good stead. Just like Yuzvendra Chahal, Unadkat might just prove to be another bowling wildcard to make his IPL successes count at the international level.

“I had some plans for myself. Had done my preparations before the series. To achieve results like this is outstanding,” Unadkat said after the match. “I have been through the domestic circuit, played a lot of games there. It helped me mature as a player. I was always eager to make this comeback. I made a comeback in 2013, but that was not that great. It was important for me in this series to get the confidence.”

“The most important phase of any player’s career is domestic circuit. To come out well gives you the confidence. IPL cricket has really helped to get the confidence when you come to the international arena.”

Unadkat’s comeback can be safely filed under the ‘successful’ category as far as experimentation in this series was concerned.

KL Rahul

A day after it was announced that KL Rahul will not be a part of the Indian ODI squad to travel to South Africa for the six ODIs, he got dismissed for a 9-ball 4 at the Wankhede. It was not the most auspicious couple of days for the Karnataka lad.

But, at a time when the slot of opening batsman for Team India is the most competitive, Rahul made sure his name will not be easily ignored in the near future.

He finished as the second highest run-getter in the series, behind only the prolific Rohit Sharma, with two half centuries to his name. And he looked utterly classy doing it. Just like Rohit, and unlike Dhawan, Rahul is all class, irrespective of the format he plays in, and he doesn’t usually score ugly runs. His 48-ball 61 in Cuttack and 49-ball 89 in Indore were both innings that were a purist’s delight in the era of slogging.

When he broke on to the scene, Rahul made his name as an all-format player. Scoring international centuries in all three formats is no joke – even Virat Kohli doesn’t yet boast of that record. But at a time, when his spot in the team and the role he’s likely to play, is under the scanner, he did enough to make sure Dhawan and even Murali Vijay can’t rest easy.

MS Dhoni

“You know, T20 cricket, we don’t care, whether we win or lose. We want to focus on giving the players time in the middle in preparation for 2019.”

That was Ravi Shastri, admitting what most fans and cricket writers had presumed to be true. If India truly cared about being a good T20I side, there are players in the current squad who would not make it on the merit of their performances in the format.

And MS Dhoni is one of them. (Don’t tell that to Shastri, he’d throw a whole bunch of whataboutisms at you.)

Without a World T20 in sight, and with Dhoni’s ability to go wham-bham-thank you ma’am in the shortest format under scrutiny for a while now, there were, understandably, debates surrounding his place in the side. But by promoting him up the order in the first T20I, Rohit and Shastri sent out a signal saying they are ready to try out a solution which has been long proposed in regards to the Dhoni situation. And that move paid off handsomely in Cuttack, when Dhoni took his time to get his eye in before stepping on the gas at the end – finishing with a 22-ball 39. A 21-ball 28 in the second T20I followed, batting at No 3. And just when it looked like Sri Lanka might sneak a win at the Wankhede, he walked out at No 7 and carried the team past the finish line with a 10-ball 16.

If India really did care about the T20I format, there would still be a case for blooding young talent. But if the focus is all about 2019 World Cup, and getting Dhoni enough game time, making him bat higher up in the order in the shortest format, is just the way to do it.