Rest assured, India set to tour Zimbabwe
FOLLOWING the setbacks suffered by the full-strength Indian team in Bangladesh, the Sandeep Patil-led selection committee is set to pick a youth-centric squad for the tour to Zimbabwe, which is likely to be back on track after spending a few weeks under a cloud. The selectors are scheduled to meet on June 29 to pick the team, with a few new faces expected to make the cut. India are scheduled to play 3 ODIs and 2 T20s against the hosts.
The tour itself was under jeopardy with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) having gone on record about their apprehension regarding the broadcasters, Ten Sports, who own the rights to air international cricket in Zimbabwe.
Ten Sports is owned by the Essel Group, a company that has been accused of trying to form a parallel cricket board by setting up rebel leagues.
However, officials from BCCI and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) met on the sidelines of the ICC Annual Conference in Barbados to sort out the issue and decided to go ahead with the tour. But it’s learnt that the Indian board has informed their hosts about sending a second-string team for the limited-overs tour.
As they went down 2-1 to Bangladesh in the ODI series after a rain-affected solitary Test, a majority of the Indian players had lamented about the hectic schedule they had endured over the last eight months.
The season had started in October with the truncated home series against West Indies, then came five ODIs against Sri Lanka before MS Dhoni & Co departed for Australia, only to return four-and-a-half months later, having played four Tests, a tri-series involving England and the ICC World Cup-where they reached the semifinal.
Then came the IPL. And the selectors feel the need to give the regulars in the squad a much-deserved rest. It won’t be a lengthy rest though as India is scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in late-July, where they will be at full-strength. “If the tour happens, then a second string team will travel. The players certainly need some break now because they have been playing non-stop cricket. Since it’s a short tour, we will try to blood some new faces in Zimbabwe. As far as the official confirmation for the Zimbabwe tour is concerned, it will be out soon,” sources in the BCCI informed.
Incidentally, a majority of the senior players had asked for rest in the build-up to the Bangladesh tour, but their requests were declined by the BCCI.
And both Dhoni and Virat Kohli had made it a point to mention that this tour was the much-awaited end of a long season for them while speaking to the media in Dhaka. The fatigue factor was evident in the team’s listless display in the first two ODIs, in which Bangladesh were winners by comprehensive margins. “Almost the same players are playing in all the tournaments. Fatigue could be a reason, I’m not saying it is the reason, but it could well be,” Dhoni had said following the six-wicket loss in the second ODI at Mirpur. “In hindsight, we might have been better off with a few fresh faces. The players were physically exhausted and mentally drained out. They’ve been playing almost non-stop for the last nine-odd months. They were not in top shape mentally and failed to raise their game,” a BCCI source had told this paper in the aftermath of the series loss to Mashrafe Mortaza’s spirited outfit.
But if the tour does get a go-ahead as is expected, it could well be a chance for India to test their bench-strength against a Zimbabwe team that had them in trouble for a brief period during their World Cup encounter at Auckland before Suresh Raina saved them the blues with an unbeaten century. That the tour, which will be played between July 10 and 19, could be on again will be welcome news for Zimbabwean cricket as they try to rebuild their team following the departure of inspirational skipper Brendan Taylor, who had led the way with a blistering 138 against India in the World Cup and has now shifted to England for good to play for Nottinghamshire in the County Championships.
ZC chairman William Manase had earlier said in a press statement that if the issue regarding the broadcaster wasn’t sorted, the two boards might mutually agree to push the tour to next year. But for now it looks like they might not have to wait that long.
