The international cricket will back again among the Indian cricket folks as Indian novices under the experienced captain MS Dhoni will start their African campaign against Zimbabwe tomorrow. The first ODI of the three-match ODI and three matches T20 series will be played at the Harare Cricket Club.
BCCI selectors have chosen a young team giving much-needed rest to key players like Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, and Rohit Sharma.
This is especially exposure tour for the youngsters. The vision of BCCI is clear as the 2017 Champions Trophy is just a year away BCCI wants to keep a strong reserve bench .
So youngsters like KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu will have a good opportunity to prove them as good batsmen under pressure situation while bowler like Barinder Sran, Rishi Dhawan, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat have another opportunity to prove the worth of their selection.
They have given India’s most successful limited over captain MS Dhoni to lead them. Dhoni himself will have to seat at home as India will take off for 49 days long West Indies tour under the captaincy of Virat Kohli in July. The next time Dhoni will play for India in September when New Zealand will visit India to play three Test and five ODI matches.
The members of 15 men squad will have an opportunity to everybody keeping the core strength intact as India can’t worth a loss to Zimbabwe.
However, one has to keep in mind that this Zimbabwe side will comparatively better experience than India and have the capability to register an upset victory over MS Dhoni’s India.
So Dhoni should choose his best XI in ODI in the first match to understand the group of a new player as all of them coming directly from IPL. They are all fresh from their IPL experience so they would like to show their caliber in front of captain Dhoni. An impressive performance in front of Dhoni may chance their cricket career.
Predicted XI: MS Dhoni (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Dhawal Kulkarni, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Time: Local time 9 am, IST 12.30
Date: 12.06.2016
Where to watch: Ten Sports HD, Hotstar