India announced their 15-man squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour with Shikhar Dhawan back as skipper. The squad more or less looks the same to what played in West Indies where India won 3-0. The squad has southpaw as the skipper and opener Shubman Gill is likely to open alongside him for the three-match ODI series. The middle order has the same names in Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, and Shreyas Iyer. The pace battery also looks the same as the likes of Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh are back. Nonetheless, it was Virat Kohli who again got the axe from the squad with senior players like Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma missing out. Reports said that it was Kohli asked himself for the rest with Asia Cup starting from August 27.
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Former Pak skipper Rashid Latif, who had captained Pakistan in 6 Tests and 25 ODIs), stated that India must focus on the impending problem which is lack of stable leadership. He opined that the squad looks good, but too many captains is not good for long-term success.
“Everyone talks about backup. But they have now produced seven backup captains in the past year! This is the first time I’m seeing this in India’s history. Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah… they are repeating the same mistake as Pakistan’s in the 1990s,” Latif said on his YouTube channel Caught Behind.
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“They haven’t found a solid opener, nor do they have a stable middle-order. They just want a new captain. No captain is playing consistently for them. KL Rahul is unfit now, Rohit was unfit before. Virat is mentally unfit. So, they will have to think about it. They are changing so many captains.. they need a leader like Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli,” the former Pakistan cricketer further said.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan will lead India in the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, set to be played in Harare from August 18, the BCCI announced on Saturday.
The 36-year old Dhawan, who had also led India recently and guided them to a 3-0 series whitewash in West Indies, will captain once again in absence of Rohit Sharma, who has been rested for Zimbabwe ODI’s.
Apart from Rohit, most of the regular ODI members — Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya and Mohammad Shami — have also been given rest.
Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal, who were all part of the ODIs in the West Indies, have been left out. While there has been no official word on the selections, or non-selections, it is understood that these players are being rotated as part of the BCCI’s policy keeping in mind the packed international calendar.
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