With regular T20I stars absent after India’s glorious T20 World Cup campaign, the BCCI selectors introduced a second-string side led by Shubman Gill for the five-match series against Zimbabwe. Introducing youth like Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag, it didn’t go according to their plan as they crumbled to a 13-run defeat in the first T20I, on Saturday in Harare.
Chasing 116, India were bowled out for 102 in 19.5 overs as Tendai Chatara and Sikandar Raza returned with figures of 3/16 and 3/25 respectively. Initially, Clive Madande’s unbeaten 25-ball 29*-run knock took Zimbabwe to 115/9 in 20 overs. For India’s bowling department, Ravi Bishnoi took four wickets.
The result wasn’t well-received by Indian cricket fans, especially due to the T20I retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and they made their feelings known on X.
Reacting to the result, one fan wrote, “Bade aye IPL ke stars. They won’t understand the importance of Rohit Kohli in ICT.”
Meanwhile, another fan had a hilarious take and wrote, “Nobody had interest in watching bilateral match against Zimbabwe without Rohit-Kohli. So they decided to lose first match and make this series interesting and get the attention.”
Another fan stated, “King Kohli scored a match winning 76 runs in an ICC final and won the trophy for India from 34/3. Today is a proper example of what would have happened to India that day if Kohli did not anchor the innings. Forever grateful @imVkohli Rohit Kohli never replaced.”
Here are the other reactions:
Speaking after the match, Gill praised his bowlers, but felt his side let themselves ‘down in the field.’ “We bowled pretty well, we let ourselves down in the field. We were not up to standard and everyone looked a bit rusty. We spoke about taking time and enjoying our batting but it didn’t pan out that way. Halfway through we had lost 5 wickets, would’ve been best for us if I stayed there till the end, very disappointed with the way I got out and the rest of the match panned out,” he said.
“There was a bit of hope for us but when you’re chasing 115 and your no.10 batter is out there, you know something is wrong,” he added.
