A young Indian cricket squad, with captain Shubman Gill and head coach of the National Cricket Academy VVS Laxman, arrived in Zimbabwe for a five-match T20 International series starting July 6th.
Zimbabwe Cricket posted a video of the team's arrival at the airport, showing them with their luggage. The entire squad left from Mumbai earlier, while Shubman Gill - who was with the T20 World Cup team as a reserve in the Americas - linked up with them from New York after a short vacation.
Zimbabwe Cricket took to their platform 'X' and posted a welcome message as the T20 World Cup champions India arrived.
Riyan Parag, the young top-order batsman who is going to make his debut for India in this series, shared his excitement through a BCCI video. He spoke about how traveling with the national team and wearing the India jersey was a boyhood dream come true, especially because he is from Assam. Parag continued to say that he would weld special connection with Zimbabwe when the moment comes for him to step out for his first match as it would be a special moment.
As he reflected on the journey, Parag joked about how they had to endure other challenges like a misplacing his passport and lost phones during that 20-hour trip, but now looks forward to the upcoming tour.
For medium-pacer Tushar Deshpande, another newcomer, the experience of being part of the national setup was surreal. He said playing for the country was a dream come true, adding that he liked the camaraderie and team spirit during travel.
Abhishek Sharma, the powerful left-handed batsman himself, always nursed an ambition to represent India. Call-up for the Zimbabwe series came out of the blue, and he received a warm welcome into the team by none other than captain Shubman Gill and other seniors. Sharma remembered how overwhelming it was to see his family celebrate his selection with interviews coming home.
The campaign for India begins against the Sikandar Raza-led Zimbabwe at the Harare Cricket Ground on July 6. All the other matches are going to take place at the same venue as well. It concludes on July 14.
Both the duo could not join the squad, along with all-rounder Shivam Dube, due to hurricane Beryl in Barbados, where T20 World Cup reserves Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been trapped. Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma, and Harshit Rana have been picked to replace the first two games of the series.
The charter flight back to India is likely to have the senior players, including Samson, Jaiswal and Dube, wherein Prime Minister Narendra Modi would felicitate them in New Delhi.
On the other hand, pacer Khaleel Ahmed and batter Rinku Singh are still in Barbados—both are T20 World Cup standbys. However, despite their selection for the Zimbabwe-bound squad, BCCI has not announced any replacements.
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