Zimbabwe men's cricket team, which failed to qualify for the T20 World Cup recently, came out of the syllabus for the young Indian team as the hosts managed to achieve a 13-run win against Shubman Gill and Co. With the seniors retired, India decided to draw in fresh blood from the Zimbabwe series onwards, however, the young batting line-up capitulated under pressure after a poor start with the bat despite chasing a low score of just 116.
The bowlers did extremely well to restrict Zimbabwe to 115 but against some good pace and accuracy from the likes of Blessing Muzarabani and Tendai Chatara, the inexperienced Indian side just didn't have answers. Riyan Para, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma and Rinku Singh, all fell for single-digit scores, the last two didn't even open their account. At 22/4, India were already behind the eight-ball and the middle-orde rstood no chance despite some rearguard action from Gill and Washington Sundar.
As India's batting order collapsed, the fans missed Rajat Patidar, the MP batter who lit up IPL 2024, especially in the middle overs. Patidar, who already has played ODIs and Tests for India, amassed 395 runs at a strike rate of 177 playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Patidar had the second highest strike rate amongst Indian batters against spin, of 197 and it went above 200 against the leg-spinners. The fans reckoned that Patidar was there, India might have won the match.
Rajat Patidar was amongst one of the top trends during India's batting innings in the first T20I on Saturday, July 6. Here's a look at some of the reactions-
Patidar was ignored for the T20 series like Tilak Varma and the fans will hope that the batters currently in Zimbabwe, would make a comeback in the second T20I on Sunday, July 7. The likes of Abhishek, Riyan and Gaikwad are all proven at IPL level and will look to replicate on the international stage.
