By: Tarish Bhatt
Indian captain MS Dhoni called it right at the toss, and opted to bowl first against Zimbabwe to use the early morning assistance at the Harare Sports Club.
Uncapped KL Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal and Karun Nair were named in the playing XI by the Indian team, but Faiz Fazal failed to make the cut for the 1st ODI.
Indian team went with three specialist pacers – Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran and Dhawal Kulkarni – and two spinner – Axar Patel and Chahal.
Rahul and Manish Pandey were named the openers, while Kedar Jadhav, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu and captain Dhoni in the middle-order.
“It’s an early morning start. It’s quite cool, and the fast bowlers will get some assistance early on,” Dhoni said. “The surface will get better as the game progresses.”
“There isn’t much grass in the middle, but if you get off to a good start, you can get more than 250,” the Indian captain added, during the toss.
“We’ve made the most of the couple of practice sessions we’ve got,” he further added. “We aren’t playing too many ODIs this season, so we have to make the most here.”
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