The Indian cricket team has just won the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 naming the players as ICC World champions. While the team enjoys this victory, another squad is busy preparing for another T20I series. Shubman Gill is to be the captain for a fairly young India squad for the tour. Ahead of the first match, Riyan Parag’s father gets emotional in India vs Zimbabwe T20I.
The India tour of Zimbabwe starts today, on 6 July, with a T20 match between the two teams at Harare sports club. The matches are scheduled until 14 July, after which team India will be preparing for the Sri Lanka tour.
Riyan Parag’s Father places India cap on son’s head, gets emotional
Emotions have run high in Indian cricket since their T20 World Cup win over South Africa last week. Their new journey in Zimbabwe has begun with the same enthusiasm, but this time, Riyan Parag is at the center of attention. Parag, along with Abhishek Sharma and Dhruv Jurel, debuted for India on Saturday.
It was a landmark moment for Parag as he became the first male cricketer from Assam to represent India at the highest level. The occasion was even more special because the 22-year-old received his India cap from his father, Parag Das.
In a heartwarming gesture, the Indian team management gave Riyan Parag’s father the opportunity to place the cap on his son’s head. Parag Das was a professional cricketer himself, having represented Assam in 43 first-class matches and 32 List A games.
VVS Laxman, India’s head coach for this series, gave the Indian cap to Parag Das, who then placed it on his son’s head, shook his hand, and hugged him. An emotional Das nearly teared up. Riyan then embraced his mother.
India squad for the Zimbabwe tour
As veteran cricketers Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma announced their retirement from T20I cricket, the T20 World champions will mainly be headed by players by the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. However, after a hectic T20 World Cup 2024, both these players opted out of the Zimbabwe tour.
An essentially youthful Indian team will play Zimbabwe in five Twenty20 Internationals and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs). For the duration of the series, Shubman Gill will lead the Men in Blue as captain.
Here’s the squad: Ꮪhubman Gill (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande. For the first two T20Is: Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana.
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