ZIM Vs IND: The World T20 Champion Team India is set to tour Zimbabwe for a series of five T20 International matches. This team is very different from the team which played in the T20 World Cup 2024 tournament in the United States of America and West Indies. Only Shivam Dube has been named for this tour from that World Cup-winning squad.
As we all know Shubman Gill will be the skipper for all the five matches of this series of the shortest format. All the matches of this series will be played at Harare Sports Club in Harare. India has a good record in all three forms of the game versus the team of Zimbabwe and the young side under Gill would aim to keep that record intact.
But still, the Men in Blue cannot take the Zimbabweans’ light because they can spring a surprise on any day. Zimbabwe defeated Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match which was played in Australia two years back and they have also won two matches of the shortest format against India as well. In 8 T20I matches, India has won 6 games while Zimbabwe won two matches.
It was in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, the last time Zimbabwe and India met in a T20 International match. Under Rohit Sharma’s leadership, India won that match by 71 runs at Melbourne Cricket Ground. But in today’s segment, we shall mention the two occasions when Zimbabwe stunned India in a match which was played in the shortest format.
Chamu Chibhabha And Graeme Cremer Stun India As Zimbabwe Won Their First Ever T20I Match Versus the Men in Blue –
India had toured Zimbabwe for a white ball series in 2015. The Blues were under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane for three match fifty overs series and a two-match series of the shortest format. India won the ODI series by a margin of 3-0 and the T20I series was drawn to one all.
Under Rahane, the visitors also won the first T20I match by 54 runs at Harare Sports Club in Harare. India wanted to end this tour on a high with another win in the last game of this T20I series. But Zimbabwe played well to register their first-ever win over India in the shortest format. The hosts of that match, Zimbabwe batted first and posted a decent score of 145 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their 20 overs.
Chamu Chibhabha batted extremely well and guided his team to that score of 145 runs. Chibhabha scored 67 runs to his name. For India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma picked up two wickets each while Sandeep Sharma, Stuart Binny and Axar Patel picked up one scalp each to their names. But the run chase of a decent score wasn’t an ideal one from an experienced batting lineup of India.
India started poorly in the run chase. They lost Ajinkya Rahane for just 4 runs and then Murali Vijay for 13 runs. Robbin Uthappa was the top scorer with 42 runs from just 25 deliveries. But after his wicket, Zimbabwe made a strong comeback in this encounter and even Axar Patel couldn’t do much as he fell for 24 runs. India fell 10 runs short of that total which was scored by Zimbabwe. Graeme Cremer picked up three scalps in the Indian innings which set up this magical win for Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Stunned India Yet Again In 2016 Tour –
India toured Zimbabwe with a young side which was led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2016. India again won the series of the one-day international format by a margin of three nil. But the hosts, Zimbabwe stunned India when they started the series of the shortest format with a win. In the first T20I match, Zimbabwe won that encounter by a minor margin of just two runs.
Just like their first win, Zimbabwe successfully defended the score and in this game, they batted pretty well. Elton Chigumbura was the top run-getter for Zimbabwe in that game with unbeaten 54 runs and they had some handy contributions from Malcolm Waller’s 30 runs alongside, Hamilton Masakadza’s 25 runs which allowed them to pile a good score of 170 runs on the board.
Jasprit Bumrah picked up two wickets while Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel and Rishi Dhawan picked up one wicket each to their names in this match. But India couldn’t finish off the match in style as they fell just two runs short of that good total which Zimbabwe had set for Mahi and Co. India lost the wicket of KL Rahul on the first ball.
Manish Pandey was the top scorer for the Blues with 48 runs and Mandeep Singh scored 31 runs, he was the second-highest scorer for India. But the visitors, India lost this match because the world’s best finisher couldn’t do the job as he has done many times for India and CSK in the past. MS Dhoni was unbeaten on 19 runs. Still, he couldn’t take India home in that match and Zimbabwe won it by 2 runs.
India later bounced back in this three-match series of the shortest format. Even though Zimbabwe won the first match, they didn’t win the series. India won the last two matches and clinched the T20I series with a margin of 1-2. Barinder Sran was named as the man of the series as he picked six wickets from just two matches.
Also Read – Opinion Time: Should India Invest In Shubman Gill As Their New Leader Of The Shortest Format?
