The ongoing T20 WC in the USA & West Indies concludes on June 29, 2024. It has been announced that post-World Cup, the Indian squad will travel to Zimbabwe to play a 5-match T20i Series against the African side. BCCI recently released the squadlist for the Zimbabwe series and it doesn’t feature some very big Indian players. According to Squadlist, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Suryakumar Yadav, will be among the few big-name players who won’t travel to Zimbabwe. Instead, the Indian side will be led by the 24-year-old Shubhman Gill. India will be missing out on Jasprit Bumrah and even Ravindra Jadeja.
Moreover, with Rahul Dravid’s tenure as the Indian team head coach coming to an end, his ex-teammate and good friend, VVS Laxman will be taking over as the interim head coach for the Zimbabwe tour. This series will prove to be a stepping stone for the up-and-coming Indian talent and provide them with a chance to impress the crowds and selectors alike. A good performance in this series could seriously boost the chances of playing more for India in the future.
Whom to look forward to?
The next generation of Indians has been shining brightly for quite some time now, especially in the IPL. But with veterans like Jadeja, Kohli, Hardik, Rohit, etc. all performing for India on the big stage, they seldom get the chance to play for India. Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Rinku Singh will be included in the squad as comparative “veterans” of the Indian squad. Some of the players who are getting their maiden call-up by the selectors for the Zimbabwe series are Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Tushar Deshpande, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Harshit Rana. We will see a return of Ruturaj Gaikwad back in the Indian dressing room as well. Some are speculating we might see him as the deputy-in-chief to Gill.
Every one of the above-mentioned players has impressed in this year’s TATA IPL. And all of them will be gearing up to impress in the upcoming Zimbabwe challenge. But amongst the ones listed above, two young stalwarts might shine the brightest. Riyan Parag and Abhishek Sharma. Parag has been ridiculed, and roasted over the last 2-3 years, and in a single IPL season, he has turned those jeers into applause. The standout player for Rajasthan Royals, he was a huge reason why Rajasthan Royals managed to make it to the Qualifier 2 in the season. He put his hand up when the opening partnership of the Royals, Jaiswal and Butler didn’t work. On many occasions like in a high-pressure game like the Eliminator, he steered his team home in a tricky run chase.
Secondly, there is nothing to discuss about Abhishek Sharma. Many fans were personally a bit confused when Abhishek Sharma was not included in the 2024 World Cup squad in the first place. With the kind of IPL season he had, it must have been a difficult call, even for the selectors. But now, it is Abhishek’s time to shine. In an IPL that was the most one-sided towards the batters, one where runs were flooding left and right, it was Abhishek Sharma, a lanky-looking left-handed opening batsman who stood the tallest. Competing with heavy hitters like Travis Head, Heinrich Klaassen from his team and strong-muscled men like Andre Russel and Nicholas Pooran, Abhishek was the only player to score 450+ runs at a strike rate above 200. Furthermore, the young man scored a mammoth 42 sixes in the single season of IPL, the most by any Indian ever.
Hence, while it will be a stage for everyone to prove their mettle, according to me, Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag are the two to look out for.
India’s Squad for T20i Series against Zimbabwe:
Shubhman Gill (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Nitish Reddy, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande.
