India’s unbeaten streak of 13 wins lastly resulted in a stunning trend. However how did each Crew India participant fare within the opening T20I towards Zimbabwe?
India Player Rating vs Zimbabwe: A week after India’s historic T20 World Cup 2024 title, the champions kneeled down to a team that didn’t even qualify to play the marque tournament. It was the brilliance of Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza, who always has been their talismanic figure. He weaved his magic with a powerful spell of 3/25 as Zimbabwe defended the lowest score in T20Is against India, i.e., 115 runs.
IND vs ZIM: Who scored 10/10?
Shubman Gill (8/10): First-ever game as Indian skipper for Shubman Gill, the Prince of India failed to lead his team over the line. He was looking in great touch and even made 31. However, opposition skipper’s beauty off-break led castled him. His captaincy was decent as well.
Abhishek Sharma (0/10): All the hype came to a premature end as Abhishek Sharma handed a simple catch at deep mid-wicket to join MS Dhoni on a unique list. While he bowled two overs as well, the southpaw failed to get any wickets as well.
Ruturaj Gaikwad (2/10): As India’s top-order collapsed, Ruturaj Gaikwad sent one down slips. He looked tentative with the bat and was out on 7 off 9 balls.
Riyan Parag (0/10): Similar to Abhishek, Riyan Parag also had a long-awaited international debut. While he didn’t get any opportunity to bowl, the first-ever Indian debutant from north-east region gave a simple catch to mid-off fielder.
Rinku Singh (0/10): All eyes were definitely going to be on Rinku, who was hard done by not getting included in the T20 World Cup squad. When it seemed like he would redeem himself, Rinku was outdone by the extra bounce in Harare. He top-edged one that skied up and was out on two-ball duck.
Dhruv Jurel (4/10): Another T20I debutant, another failure unfortunately for India. Dhruv Jurel was one of the rising stars in the India vs England Test series earlier this year, but was undone by the pressure situation.
Washington Sundar (9/10): With the ball, he was quite phenomenal. The lanky off-spinner bowled wicket-to-wicket and generated enough bounce off the deck. He claimed two wickets for 11 runs. However, all the drama came with the bat. He could’ve been the miracle man for India but was unfortunately out in the last over.
Ravi Bishnoi (10/10): Despite missing out on T20 World Cup squad, Ravi Bishnoi came up with a resounding performance and proved why he was previously No. 1 ranked T20I bowler. Zimbabwe batters failed to read his sharp googlies as they racked up his career-best figures of 4/13.
Avesh Khan (7.5/10): India chose the experience of Avesh Khan over someone like Harshit Rana. However, it wasn’t an ideal performance by Avesh, who while took one wicket, leaked 12 runs in the last over. Playing as a middle-over enforcer, Avesh failed to trouble Chevron batters.
Mukesh Kumar (8.5/10): Mukesh was quite handy as he started the innings with pin-point bowling. He looked threatening and even clean bowled Innocent Kaia with a peach.
Khaleel Ahmed (6.5/10): Khaleel had a record-breaking T20I comeback. However, it wasn’t up to the mark as he failed to get any movement with the new ball and was India’s most expensive bowler with 9.3 economy rate. Khaleel leaked 28 runs.
Editors pick
