Shikhar Dhawan, Deepak Chahar along with VVS Laxman board flight as Team India leave for Zimbabwe – see pics

Indian cricket team players have left for Zimbabwe to take part in a three-match ODI series against the African side. The Indian team led by KL Rahul will be up against the hosts in Harare, and the matches will take place on August 18, 20 and 22. Both the teams have won their respective previous ODI series by a dominating margin.
India

Shikhar Dhawan, Deepak Chahar, and Prasidh Krishna pose for a photo from inside the plane. Picture Credit: Twitter/@BCCI

KEY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Indian players have left for Zimbabwe.
  • The team will play three ODIs there against the hosts.
  • KL Rahul will captain India in Zimbabwe.
After the conclusion of India’s tour of the West Indies, the Men in Blue’s next assignment is against Zimbabwe. And to take part in the three-match ODI series against the African side, the second-string Indian team has left for Zimbabwe. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has posted pictures of Indian players boarding the flight from its Twitter handle.
In the five pictures shared by India’s top cricket body, senior opening batter Shikhar Dhawan can be seen posing with Prasidh Krishna and Deepak Chahar, who has been selected to represent India for the first time since February 20, 2022.
In other pictures, one can spot the team’s head coach for the tour — VVS Laxman — pacers Sharul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj, and top-order batters Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rahul Tripathi. Both the Maharashtra-based batters are yet to play their maiden ODI game for India.
In the series against Zimbabwe, India will face the hosts in three ODIs, and all three games will take place in Harare. The Indians have won the last three ODI series played this year against the West Indies (home in February), England and the West Indies (away), and they will be eager to extend the winning run.
But the task isn’t going to be as easy as it was initially expected. The hosts have been in good touch these days and have recently won both the ODI and T20I series against higher-ranked Bangladesh by a margin of 2-1.
The Indian team, which will be led by premier batter KL Rahul, who is also making his comeback after a long-term injury, needs to be wary of Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza especially. The 36-year-old Pakistan-born cricketer scored two back-to-back unbeaten centuries in the first two ODIs against Bangladesh to seal his side’s historic triumph.
The upcoming series will give Indian players like Rahul and Chahar a chance to get much-needed game time and find some rhythm ahead of joining the Indian team for the upcoming Asia Cup T20 tournament, which will take place in the United Arab Emirates from August 27.
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