India won their first ODI with three debutants by nine wickets against close to full strength Zimbabwe in Harare. KL Rahul scored 100 not out off 115 balls. Today, Indian players are ready to take the lead against Zimbabwe in their second match.
Before that, Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar said that Zimbabwe need to play much better cricket if they want to level series against India. According to him, team India looks strong without senior players.
“Indian bowlers provided wickets at regular intervals which did not allow the Zimbabwe team any chance to settle down. LK Rahul’s form in the latter half of the IPL was most impressive and he carried it into the game here. What was seen was not just the range of shots but also the boldness that went with it. He had an unbeaten partnership with Ambati Rayudu that took India to their win and at no time were they troubled by the Zimbabwe bowling which looked really ordinary,” said Gavaskar.
His advice to Zimbabwe’s team management is to have a look at team composition . Gavaskar feels they must try shuffling their batting order a bit. “Looking at the Zimbabwe bowling, it does appear as if numbers five and six will not get many opportunities to bat. Maybe, the team management will have to think about changing the batting order so as to give the others a chance too. It does look like it’s going to be terribly one-sided but then India have made solid progress so much so that even its second string looks formidable.” told Gavaskar.