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India will play the first T20I of the five-match series against Zimbabwe on Saturday, July 6, at the Harare Sports Club in Harare. The captain of the Indian cricket team will be Shubman Gill, who will be taking over the reigns in T20Is for the first time in the upcoming series.
In the leadership role, Shubman Gill will replace the T20 World Cup-winning captain Rohit Sharma, who has announced his retirement from the format, and Hardik Pandya, the designated vice-captain, who is given a rest from the series. The right-handed batter, with a stellar batting record in the format, will be opening the innings for India in the T20I series either alongside Sai Sudharsan or Abhishek Sharma, who are both left-handed batters with decent records at the top of the order.
The responsibility of batting at number three could fall upon Ruturaj Gaikwad, while the number four slot could go to Riyan Parag after dominating the IPL 2024. Either Dhruv Jurel or Jitesh Sharma could get the opportunity to take the gloves for the Indian cricket team against Zimbabwe in the T20I series.
Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar are all but locked in for the number six and seven slots in the Indian playing XI. The team management could pick three fast bowlers, namely Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, and Mukesh Kumar, along with Ravi Bishnoi playing the role of the main spinner after barely missing out on the flight to the Americas to play in the T20 World Cup 2024.
Here is the SportsTiger’s Playing XI for the first T20I versus Zimbabwe:
Shubman Gill (c), Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar
