ZIMBABWE vs INDIA 1st T20 PREVIEW :- ZIMBABWE WILL LOOK TO BOUNCE BACK
After 3-0 white-wash in the 3 Match ODI Series, Zimbabwe will look to end India’s dominance on this tour. The first T20I between Zimbabwe vs India will be played on 18th of June 2016 at the same venue where all the ODIs had been played i.e. Harare Sports Club, Harare. Zimbabwe who is currently ranked at no. 12 in the ICC T20I ranking, will face no. 2 ranked in ICC T20I ranking India and this will be a huge game for them.
In the whole ODI series, Zimbabwean batsmen failed completely. Despite Vusi Sibanda in the 2nd ODI, no other batsman could reach a half century mark. By virtue of it Zimbabwe’s score were 168, 126 and 123 in three ODIs. This scorecard shows the failure of Zimbabwean batsmen.
Not only their batsmen, Zimbabwean bowlers could not manage to take wickets. All the bowlers of Zimbabwe were looking ordinary against the 2nd string Indian Team. One can imagine their bowling performance that the Zimbabwean bowlers could only get 3 wickets in the whole ODI series against India.
On the other hand, India will go past New Zealand and will become the no. 1 T20I side in the world if they win this T20I series with a clean sweep. India might go through some changes in playing eleven for T20I series as many players could not get a chance to play in 50 overs format. Players like Kedar Jadhav, Rishi Dhawan, Mandeep Singh and Rishi Dhawan could get a chance to play their first match in this series.Despite them, star performers from the ODI Series like Yuzvendra Chahal, KL Rahul, Jaspreet Bumrah , Dhawal Kulkarni and Faiz Fazal will be the attention of all the viewers in this T20I series.
So, if Zimbabwe have to manage to win the games, they need to be more competitive and raise their performance. Players like Masakadza, Chigumbura and Chibhabha will have to take some responsibility in the batting department to put some runs on the board so the bowlers atleast could try to defend that total.