India vs Zimbabwe Live Score: The champions of the world, India are to start at Harare Sports Club on Saturday with a five-match Twenty20 series against Zimbabwe.
Shubman Gill will lead India for the first time since their triumphant T20 World Cup campaign, with senior players set to take a break from the game.
The 24-year-old batter, who captained Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League, returns to India’s T20 eleven alongside middle order bat Rinku Singh. They were not part of the World Cup squad but traveled as reserves to West Indies and US.
Star batting duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirements from T20 internationals after lifting the World Cup trophy in Barbados on June 29.
Ravindra Jadeja also announced his international retirement from this format along with world’s No.1 all-rounder Hardik Pandya, No.1 batsman Suryakumar Yadav and No.1 pacer Jasprit Bumrah who deserved a break each.
In other words, this is an open call for kids that dream about becoming international cricketers because many big names have retired or been rested.
Including Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag who had memorable IPL campaigns as well as Tushar Deshpande among others, there are several potential superstars from India and they are all youth players that participated in IPLs so far.
Abhishek Sharma was white-hot for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL scoring 484 runs off 16 matches at SR 204. 22 while Parag scored 573 runs for Rajasthan Royals which makes them both expected starters in this series receiving their first taste of T20 cricket at national level.
Among those tipped for valuable T20 stints also are Ruturaj Gaikwad (skipper of Chennai Super Kings). Who is slat to open alongside Gill in game one, spin all-rounder Washington Sundar and medium pacer. Tushar Deshpande who took 38 IPL wickets for CSK over the last two seasons.
Sharma will join Gill at the top of the innings for game one with Gaikwad coming in at number three.
Only Sanju Samson and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal were from the World Cup squad to be select for this series. Shivam Dube was called up later after 21-year-old all-rounder. Nitish Reddy suffered an injury during a practice session.
After a hurricane delayed their departure from Barbados, they could only arrive in India on Thursday late thus ruling them out of first two games and Sai Sudharsan. Jitesh Sharma as well as Harshit Rana who is a bowler were add into India’s squad for the first two T20s instead.
Zimbabwe have named a 17-man squad led by Sikandar Raza. Senior players Craig Ervine and Sean Williams have not bee considered. While 25 year old Antum Naqvi is include subject to him getting Zimbabwe citizenship during that time.
This is Zimbabwe’s third high-profile T20 series in 2024 having played against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh earlier.
India played Zimbabwe last in the 2022 Melbourne T20 World Cup where Men in Blue won by 71 runs.
They met again at home in 2010 when India toured Zimbabwe for a three-match series. In total, they had played eight T20s with India winning six games.
