The men’s senior selection committee has added Sai Sudharsan, Harshit Rana and Jitesh Sharma to India squad for first two T20Is vs Zimbabwe as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Khaleel Ahmed and Rinku Singh are still stuck in Barbados.
Jaiswal, Dube, Samson, Rinku and Khaleel were part of India’s 2024 T20 World Cup campaign but are yet to leave Barbados due to the hurricane situation and will now be travelling with rest of the squad to India first before leaving for Harare.
“The Men’s Selection Committee has named Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana as replacements for Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal for the first two T20Is against Zimbabwe.
“Originally slated to join the Zimbabwe-bound squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series starting Saturday, 6th July, the trio will travel to India first with the rest of the ICC T20 World Cup-winning Indian squad before departing for Harare," read a BCCI media release.
There has been a delay in India’s departure from the Caribbean as the side, originally scheduled to travel on Monday, will now be departing on Tuesday evening (local time) and are understood to be taking a direct charter from Barbados to New Delhi. The entire Indian contingent – players, families, support staff and BCCI officials – will be boarding the charter and with no clarity over commercial flights yet, the safest option was to take Zimbabwe bound players back to India first.
It would have been too much travel fatigue for the three players to fly back to India and then directly leave for Harare and these extra few days would allow them enough time to recharge their batteries before the third T20I on July 10. The first two T20Is are anyway back-to-back.
While the Board of Control for Cricket in India didn’t mention where the team would land, there is a bright possibility of the entire squad reaching Delhi and meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As CricketNext had reported, the meet was being worked out by the senior BCCI office bearers and it’s likely to happen when the entire squad lands in India.
The Squad Departs, Captain Likely to Join Directly
Rest of the squad for Zimbabwe series left from Mumbai yesterday and captain Shubman Gill, as CricketNext had reported earlier, will directly link-up with the squad.
The right-hander hasn’t returned to the country after being released from India T20 World Cup squad and had to take care of few commercial engagements.
India play five T20Is vs Zimbabwe and all games will be played in Harare. The series gets underway on July 6.
India’s squad for 1st & 2nd T20I 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, Harshit Rana
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