India makes further adjustments to squad

THE Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced further adjustments to their team that will be facing Zimbabwe in a five match T20I series starting on Saturday at Harare Sports Club.

Team India touched down at the Robert Mugabe International Airport in the capital on Tuesday evening, however, without the T20 World Cup winning trio of Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who will join them a bit later on.

The BCCI announced that the trio will miss the first two matches of the series as they will have to first go to India with the rest of the World Cup winning team before making way to Zimbabwe and will be replaced by Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana.

“Originally slated to join the Zimbabwe-bound squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series starting Saturday, 6th July, the trio will travel to India first with the rest of the ICC T20 World Cup-winning Indian squad before departing for Harare,” read a statement from BCCI Secretary Jay Shah.

The victorious T20 World Cup squad was expected to land in India on Monday, but their arrival was delayed because of Hurricane Beryl, which led to the airport in Barbados being shut down.

With the team that is set to face the Chevrons having arrived on Tuesday, Rinku Singh and Khaleel Ahmed, who were part of the reserves for the World Cup, are likely to join the squad in Harare directly from the Caribbean.

Shubman Gill, who has been named captain of the squad in Zimbabwe, is set to join the squad directly from the USA, where he was on holiday after being released from India’s touring reserves at the end of the group stage of the global showpiece.

Dube came into the Indian team for the upcoming tour as a replacement to uncapped Nittish Kumar Reddy who picked up an injury. Reddy was one of the four uncapped players who were announced in India’s 15-man initial squad.

India will be under the stewardship of VVS Laxman in the interim, with the BCCI yet to announce Rahul Dravid’s permanent replacement.

The series against India will mark a new chapter for Zimbabwe under a new technical setup. South African Justin Sammons was appointed head coach last week, with former Zimbabwe international Dion Ebrahim as his assistant.

The duo had their first full training session in charge of the Chevrons on Tuesday ahead of the start of the series on Saturday afternoon.

Zimbabwe and India have faced each other eight times in 20-over cricket with India winning six of those while the Chevrons have only emerged victorious on a couple of occasions.

The five matches between Zimbabwe and India are pencilled for 6, 7, 10, 13 and 14 July. All the five matches will be starting at 1pm.

India’s squad for 1st & 2nd T20I against Zimbabwe:

Shubman Gill (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande, Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Harshit Rana.
– @brandon_malvin