A youthful Indian team, led by Shubman Gill and having VVS Laxman, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) head of cricket as the coach touched down at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport ahead of the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe starting on July 6.
In a video posted by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) on X, the Indian team is seen making its way to arriving at the airport in Harare. While the entire India squad departed from Mumbai on Tuesday for arriving in Harare, Gill arrived from New York, where he was taking a break after being a traveling reserve in India’s Group A stage matches in the USA for the T20 World Cup.
“We welcome T20 World Cup champions India,” wrote ZC on late Wednesday night in its post on ‘X’. In a video posted by the BCCI on their social media handles, left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma, who earned his maiden India call-up, said about his feelings of traveling with the Indian team for the first time.
On Monday, BCCI announced B Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana were included in the Indian squad for the first two games in place of Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who will be returning home with the victorious T20 World Cup winning side.
Rinku Singh and Khaleel Ahmed, the two traveling reserves in the Caribbean, are likely to link up with the team in Harare, though their travel plan as of now is not clear yet.
India’s squad for first two T20Is 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) and Harshit Rana –IANS nr/bc