Out of many wonderful moments in India’s felicitation ceremonies and victory parade after arriving home with the T20 World Cup trophy, the special ‘champions’ jersey designed for the team’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi would be one of the standouts. India’s World Cup-winning cricketers, led by Rohit Sharma, sported a special jersey with ‘champions’ written on it during their breakfast meeting with the PM at his residence in New Delhi on Thursday.
Another striking feature of that jersey was the extra star added above the BCCI logo to denote India’s second T20 World Cup triumph. Previously, India’s T20I jersey had only one star, depicting their victory in the inaugural edition in 2007. Rohit, Virat Kohli and others wore the jersey with only one star throughout the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies but that changed with their triumph over South Africa in Barbados on June 29. Or did it?
Much to the surprise of many, the young Indian side, under Shubman Gill, walked out wearing the old jersey with just one star on it for the first T20I against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday. But why? Shouldn’t they be flaunting the two stars in their first T20I series since the World Cup victory? Ideally, yes, but due to logistical issues, it was not possible.
When India won the World Cup in Barbados, it was around 11:30 on Saturday night in India. The young Indian side left for Zimbabwe from Mumbai on Monday night. It was very difficult to prepare an entirely new kit with an additional star on such short notice, so Gill’s Team India was wearing the ‘old’ jersey in the first T20I against Zimbabwe.
BCCI hasn’t released an official statement regarding this, but an upgrade in the upcoming matches of the series cannot be ruled out.
The Gill-led Indian side will play five T20Is against Zimbabwe. The squad does not have any member of India’s World Cup-winning side for the first two matches of the series. Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, and Yashavi Jaiswal will join the team later.
The young side gave a good account of themselves in the series opener. Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi registered career-best figures of 4/13 and Washinton Sundar picked up 2/11 on his return as India restricted Zimbabwe to 115/9 in 20 overs.
India fielded three debutants in this match. Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag and Dhryv Jurel got their caps before the start of the match.
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