Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema, Zimpapers Sports Hub
INDIA are in the country for one of those ‘blink, and you miss it’ tours.
However, there are many subplots at play that promise to make it one of the more exciting four days of cricket.
The three-match T20 series begins this afternoon at Harare Sports Club with two men, on opposite ends of the international cricketing spectrum, expected to dominate the headlines.
On one end is Zimbabwe’s T20 skipper Sikandar Raza, who only this past weekend became the country’s most capped international cricketer during the third and final T20 between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh with 314 matches across all three formats.
It was a moment Raza really did not get to enjoy much as the Chevrons fell to Bangladesh by four wickets at Queens Sports Club and conceded the three-match series 2-1 to their Asian counterparts.
“To be honest with you, I haven’t had the time to look back,” said Raza on the milestone.
“The only time I had was to be grateful, firstly, to God, then to Zimbabwe for the opportunity, my family for the support and the fans for accepting me for who I am, especially for a guy who wasn’t born here.
“All I can tell you now is that when I received my debut cap, March 2013, I never thought in my wildest dream that I would be here.
“It never occurred to me,” he said.
Raza said that when the day actually came, it felt rather surreal and he is happy that India are now in the country and have afforded him a second chance to soak it all in.
“In a way, it’s good that India is here, and that we have these back-to-back series, because I felt like I needed some time to basically reflect on the journey,” he said.
“I am happy I didn’t have that time because it would have been a very emotional time for me.
“I don’t take any cap that I have received for Zimbabwe lightly.
“Every cap that I have worn and every game I played for Zimbabwe, is a great reminder of the fact that this country gave me a home, gave me a name and gave me an identity.
“So every time I have walked out, the people have loved me as one of their own. The new generation that’s coming in doesn’t even know that I wasn’t born here, so there is a lot of emotion attached to every time I represent Zimbabwe,” he said.
India have given Raza a second chance to enjoy his moment after Zimbabwe’s performance during the Bangladesh series robbed him.
However, India will not be a stroll in the park.
The reigning T20 champions are fresh off disappointing defeats against Ireland and England.
But their vice-captain Tilak Varma believes the visitors are well placed to bounce back and stressed the importance of adapting quickly to the conditions.
Reflecting on the lessons from India’s last two T20I series defeats, Tilak said the squad’s focus is firmly on executing its plans and rediscovering winning momentum.
The reigning T20 World Cup champions have been winless in their last seven games in the shortest format, losing both games to Ireland, before England hammered them 4-0 in the five-match T20I series.
“Honestly, it has been a big learning since the last series,” said Tilak.
“And we are just looking forward.
“We want to follow our basics and do well in the coming series.
“In this series, we will execute well and seal our best cricket.
“We want to get that momentum back again.”
As reinforcements, India have also called up three fresh faces to the T20I side in the form of pacers Yash Thakur and Ashok Sharma, as well as explosive opener Prabhsimran Singh.
However, all eyes will surely be fixed on 15-year-old batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Riding on his IPL heroics, he made it to India’s T20I tours of Ireland and England.
Although he did not feature in the two-match series in Belfast, Ireland, he made his international debut in the second T20I against England in Manchester, becoming India’s youngest-ever international cricketer.
Sooryavanshi played the next three matches but managed only modest scores and was left out of the fifth and final T20I, with Sanju Samson returning to the starting 11.
India went on to lose the series 0-4.
While India are wounded and eager to bounce back, led by the exploits of Sooryavanshi, Raza has refused to be intimidated.
He even went as far as declaring that Zimbabwe are in it to win it.
“Any country that comes to Zimbabwe, we feel that we have an equal chance as them to beat them, especially in our home.
“And that is no exception to India,” declared Raza.
“Whatever the result might be, we have won games against any country that has come to Zimbabwe.
“We are just struggling to close out the series.
“So without being disrespectful to India, and without giving them too much credit either, I think we have as much of a chance to win the series as India,” he said.
Raza and the rest of the Chevrons unit are also well-acquinted with the hype around Sooryavanshi.
“When you have a population of 1.5 billion and where most of the people do play cricket, prodigies come around,” said Raza.
“Making it into the Indian national team means that you already have a lot of skills because a lot of people are playing cricket in India.
“So for you to be in the top 50 or 30 cricketers in the country, that means you are good enough because your pool of players is very big.
“What remains to be seen is how well you do at the international level.
“Yes, he (Sooryavanshi) has done it at the IPL level, which of course, when it comes to franchise cricket, remains the epitome of it.
“However, international cricket is slightly a different beast.
“The badge on your chest, the crest on your hat, it adds a lot of pressure and holds a lot of weight.
“So how he handles that is what he needs to figure out.
“Our bowling attack is doing well and we will plan accordingly.
“To plan against Sooryavanshi alone, in my opinion, would be disrespectful to the other quality cricketers that India have and also would be incomplete preparation from the Zimbabwean side.
“We are not playing against one Indian, we are playing against 11 Indians tomorrow (today), and I respect every opposition equally.
“However, I trust my boys as a captain should, and I believe in the plans we have and the things we have spoken about.
“What happens after, happens after,” he said
Raza did, however, express his concern at the Zimbabwe batting, which he believes needs to improve and upscale their skills so as not to be left behind on the international cricket scene.
“The last time we hosted India, they had won the World Cup and they showed us how a World Cup champion team needs to play in T20 cricket and the way the modern game is going,” he said.
“We want to match those standards, especially given that we feel like from 170 that we are so used to scoring, we need to get into a habit of 180, 190.
“And sometimes when you’re looking for that score, 150, 140 can happen.
“This transition that we are going through, this shift of mindset and upskilling ourselves might take some time.
“But if we want Zimbabwe to be truly competing against the world of cricket, then I can assure you if we do not upskill ourselves, if we do not try and get into the habits of 190, 200, then we’ll be left behind.
“We need to upskill ourselves.
“We play within ourselves a little bit and calculate the game, but sometimes when the big over presents itself, we have to cash in and try and find two or three big overs out of 20 overs instead of one,” he said.
Apart from Sooryavanshi, the other two players likely to be under pressure to perform are the India skipper Shreyas Iyer and his deputy Tilak.
It is Iyer’s first trip to Zimbabwe and the new India skipper will be desperate to bounce back to winning ways under his captaincy.
Series defeats in Ireland (2-0) and England (4-0) have put the spotlight firmly on Iyer, who took over the captaincy after IPL 2026 despite not having played a T20I since December 2023.
Since the halfway mark of IPL 2026, Iyer has won just one of 13 completed matches as captain.
That run includes six consecutive defeats, a slide that ultimately derailed Punjab Kings’ campaign after they had begun the season unbeaten through seven games.
Tilak, on the other hand, rediscovered his touch with the bat just ahead of coming into this series, smashing an attacking 25-ball 53 in the final T20I against England.
India head into the series with recent experience of touring Zimbabwe, but Tilak warned against underestimating the hosts, pointing to their victory in the opening match of the previous bilateral contest between the two sides.
Right after the T20 World Cup in 2024, India toured Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series, where Zimbabwe stunned India in the series opener by defending 115.
India returned strongly with four out of four wins in the remaining games.
“Zimbabwe is a very good team,” he said.
“They are a very competitive team. And you see last time when we started the series, they won the first game,” said the India vice-captain.
While acknowledging that the batting group remains largely unchanged from India’s recent tours, the vice-captain expects subtle differences in the playing surface to test the visitors’ adaptability.
“As a batting group, we are playing the same team as the last two series.
“The conditions aren’t that different, but there will be a slight change in the wicket.
“So we have to adapt quickly, and play our best cricket.”
India and Zimbabwe begin their tussle at Harare Sports Club today.
The match starts at 1pm.
The second and third matches of the series will be held on Saturday and Sunday, also at Harare Sports Club
