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India captain Shubman Gill confirmed India's batting set-up ahead of their opening T20I of the five-match series against Zimbabwe.
India's squad will have a completely different look-up to the one that lifted the T20 World Cup last week in Barbados. Following the retirement of stalwart batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and dynamic all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja from the T20I, the youngsters will have an opportunity to surmount their places in the shortest format of cricket. With India set to begin a new era without Kohli and Rohit, their new batting set-up will feature Gill and youngster Abhishek Sharma as openers, with Ruturaj Gaikwad taking up the number three spot. "Abhishek Sharma will open with me, and Ruturaj Gaikwad will play at number three," Gill said in the pre-match press conference. The Men in Blue's series against Zimbabwe will mark Gill's debut stint as the Indian captain. Earlier this year, he made his debut as the skipper of Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League. GT finished in the eighth spot with 12 points with five wins and seven defeats with a negative net run rate of -1.063. Gill believes that he learned a lot of lessons in his debut captaincy stint in the cash-rich league. "A lot of lessons. When I captain for the first time for my IPL team, I got to know a lot more things about myself and a lot more things about the leadership perspective. And I felt most of the challenges that you face as a captain are more mental," he said. The Indian players, including Harshit Rana, Riyan Parag, Tushar Deshpande and Abhishek, will have the opportunity to make their debut for the Indian team. Gill feels that the series will help youngsters and debutants get international experience as well as exposure. "It's quite a different team from the one that played in the World Cup. There are a lot of young players in the team, including myself. So I think in terms of that, we just want to give the players experience and how the international, what it is like to play at the international level because a lot of the players haven't played that many matches and some of the players haven't even made their debut. So I think that is our aim for the series, to give them more international exposure and experience," Gill noted. India will play the first match of the T20I series on Saturday at the Harare Sports Club. (ANI)
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