Soumya faced uncertainty about his return to the national team, but he silenced doubts by scoring 169 runs in 151 deliveries with 22 fours and two sixes. Despite his strong comeback, he felt dissatisfied because his team lost the series to the Kiwis.

“Century seems like a failure. Of course, it would have been better if we had won the match. Feels good personally, but not at the end of the day. Because it’s a team game. If I had won then at the end of the day the feeling would have worked. There would be good memories,” said Soumya.

Soumya expressed regret about losing top-order wickets in the powerplay. He believed the match would have had a different outcome if the team had scored more runs.

“If we had not lost three wickets in the power play, maybe we could have made add more with Mushfiq Bhai…Miraz. We could have scored another 40-50 runs,” he said.

“The total score would have crossed three-hundred mark. Then the situation could have been different. This is our highest total against New Zealand. But if Mushfiq Bhai or Miraz clicked, the score would have been longer, it would have crossed three hundred,” he added.