High stakes for Chevrons as they take on India’s inexperienced side

FOR the Chevrons, there will be no better opportunity to beat India in a cricket series than now. The two sides are scheduled to face off in a five-match T20I series, which gets underway today at Harare Sports Club. With the excitement of watching India play in our backyard building up, it is worth noting that they have sent a youthful, inexperienced side — a team that we couldn’t even term their “B Team”.

With their squad for the series, India appears as if they are not taking it as a big tour, and it says a lot about how they rate the Chevrons. However, there will be a lot at stake for the Sikandar Raza-captained Zimbabwean team, who have to, without fail, prove to the rest of the world that they need to be taken seriously like any other cricketing nation. The Chevrons only have one job to do, and that is to convincingly beat the Indian team and prove why they should be treated with respect and not be given second or third-string teams as their opponents have continuously done in the past.

In an interview conducted earlier during the week by online publication 3-mob, Raza said that regardless of India not coming in with big names, they will treat their opponents with respect. He believes that they will be up against India, regardless of the names. “To some extent it is correct (that India is not looking at this as a big tour) but four of the players that were at the World Cup are coming to Zimbabwe, three of those guys who were in the playing 11 have retired but I always say we never play against individuals.

It’s a country, it’s Zimbabwe against India, it is not some individual name against an individual name, it’s a tour against India and Zimbabwe is playing it so for me that’s what matters the most, it’s always the countries that are playing not the individuals,” said Raza. Despite the Chevrons skipper expressing respect for a team that seemingly doesn’t rate them highly, the pressure will be on them to prove that they should be taken seriously next time. For the Chevrons, they simply have to beat this third-tier Indian team.

Failure to do so would signal that they might not be good enough and are undeserving of donning national colours. The third-tier India side will be under the captaincy of Shubman Gill. For the first two matches, the World Cup-winning trio of Shivam Dube, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Sanju Samson will not be available but will join the squad for the remaining three encounters.

Four Indian players — Abishek Sharma, B Sai Sudharsan, Harshit Rana, and Dhruv Jurel — are in line for their T20I debuts, while players like Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar have been given a platform to revive their international careers. The series marks a new chapter for the Chevrons, who will be under new management. This will be Justin Sammons’ first assignment as the new head coach, with former Zimbabwe international Dion Ebrahim assisting as the batting coach.

On Thursday, ZC announced that former South African international cricketer Charl Langeveldt has been named the new bowling coach, replacing Steve Kirby. Langeveldt will be joined by compatriots Ravish Gobind and Curtly Diesel, who will serve as Strategic Performance Coach and Strength and Conditioning Coach, respectively. These new appointments were made in consultation with Sammons, who also opted to retain Stuart Matsikenyeri as the fielding coach, while Amato Machikicho will continue as the team’s physiotherapist.

A new team manager is yet to be appointed. Meanwhile, Raza extended a generous hand to fans who want to watch the matches at Harare Sports Club. The Chevrons skipper announced that there are 125 free tickets (25 per match) available for fans. The tickets will be distributed strictly on a first-come, first-served basis at the stadium’s Gate Three. Gates will open at 11:15am, just under two hours before the start of the match. “We appreciate your support and love for Chevrons. See you all at the Sports Club,” said Raza. Today’s match is scheduled to start at 1pm.
@brandon_malvin