The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been forced to make a change to India's squad for the upcoming series against Zimbabwe. The Indian team will travel to Zimbabwe for a five-match series starting on July 6 in Harare. BCCI had named a 15-member squad for the series on June 24.
Shivam Dube has made his way into the squad as a forced replacement for IPL star Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is injured, BCCI informed. "The Men’s Selection Committee named Shivam Dube as a replacement for the injured Nitish Reddy in India’s squad for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe. The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring Nitish Reddy’s progress," BCCI wrote in a statement.
The Indian Board had named a young squad for the Zimbabwe series. Most of the T20 World Cup 2024-bound players have not been picked for the team that will be captained by Shubman Gill, who is a reserve player in the ongoing World Cup in the USA, and West Indies.
World Cup-bound Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are not part of the Zimbabwe series. Several IPL stars have been rewarded for their performances in the Indian cash-rich league.
Three players - Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma and Tushar Deshpande have been picked for the first time for India. Notably, Dhruv Jurel, who has played Test for India in the series against England, has been given a maiden T20I call-up.
The series will begin with the first T20I on July 6, followed by the second one on July 7. The third T20I will take pace on July 10, followed by back-to-back T20Is on July 13 and July 14. All the games will begin at 4:30 PM IST and will be played at a single venue - Harare Sports Club, Harare.
India's updated squad for Zimbabwe series:
Ꮪhubman Gill (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube.
