Zimbabwe will see opportunity too, not least in upsetting the newly-minted champions after being unable to make the World Cup. Hosting an India series brings an influx of money and no shortage of eyeballs, some of whom might be on the lookout for skills that can translate to success in the various franchise tournaments happening around the world. These days, a cricket match is not just a chance to bring glory to the team. Shubman Gill is in the middle of a bit of a blip. His first real brush with captaincy, through April and May, didn't go as planned with Gujarat Titans finishing eighth out of ten teams in IPL 2024. His time with India at the T20 World Cup in June was very brief but now in July he finds himself with the power to do what he likes, at least for the course of these five matches. Will he bat like India want their players to, with aggression from the first ball, or will he do something different? Zimbabwe tripped up, badly, in the Africa T20 World Cup qualifiers in November 2023. Sikandar Raza was captain.

They hosted Ireland in December, but after an excellent all-round contribution in a one-wicket victory, he was suspended from the rest of the series due to an on-field altercation. Then Raza lost his form, with four single-digit scores in six T20I innings, but his last one was a match-winning half-century against Bangladesh. He's also produced good showings for Northamptonshire in the Vitality Blast (206 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 153). Raza's back on the up and he wants his team to be as well. This India squad is very much a work in progress so the XIs that come out of it might not have all their bases covered. The batting, for example, might only go down as far as No. 7 which certainly does not encourage the hit-every-ball-out-of-the-park philosophy they are trying to perfect. Also, the players themselves haven't proven themselves at this level. Then again, they haven't been exposed to it all that often either. Look out for debuts. There could be four or five. Gill confirmed Abhishek Sharma will open the batting alongside him.

India (probable): 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Dhruv Jurel/Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Khaleel Ahmed Zimbabwe are searching for new talent themselves. Some of their better-known players like Sean Williams and Craig Ervine weren't considered for this series and Ryan Burl has been dropped. Wessly Madhevere and Brandon Mavuta, though, are back in contention after serving out four-month suspensions for drug use. Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Tadiwanashe Marumani, 3 Sikandar Raza (capt), 4 Johnathan Campbell, 5 Antum Naqvi, 6 Clive Madande (wk), 7 Wessly Madhevere, 8 Luke Jongwe, 9 Faraz Akram, 10 Wellington Masakadza, 11 Blessing Muzarabani

Credit: Independent News Pakistan