A young Indian cricket team led by National Cricket Academy head VVS Laxman has left for Zimbabwe to play a five-match T20I series starting in Harare on July 6.
The team will be captained by Shubman Gill and includes promising youngsters like Riyan Parag and Abhishek Sharma, who have earned their maiden call-ups to the Indian national team due to their performances in the last IPL.
Captain Gill, who is also the reserve opener for the T20 World Cup, was on a break and will join the squad directly in Harare from the US.
The BCCI posted pictures of the team boarding the flight. Some of the players in the squad are Sharma, Parag, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Tushar Deshpande, and NCA head Laxman.
Five members of the squad, including Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, and Khaleel Ahmed, who were either part of the T20 World Cup-winning team or the traveling reserves, are currently stranded in Barbados due to hurricane Beryl and will join the squad later.
With Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja all retiring from the shortest format of the game, the T20 series against Zimbabwe will provide a perfect opportunity for the young players to secure their spots in the team for future series.
India’s T20I series squad against Zimbabwe: – Shubman Gill (Captain) – Yashasvi Jaiswal – Ruturaj Gaikwad – Abhishek Sharma – Rinku Singh – Sanju Samson (WK) – Dhruv Jurel (WK) – Shivam Dube – Riyan Parag – Washington Sundar – Ravi Bishnoi – Avesh Khan – Khaleel Ahmed – Mukesh Kumar – Tushar Deshpande.