India won the toss and opted to bat against Zimbabwe at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in their last Super-12 encounter on Sunday.
India will be looking to play a perfect game and register a clinical win that they have not yet been able to achieve in this tournament. They won their first match against Pakistan on the final ball. The Netherlands didn’t hand them a big win, South Africa blew away the Indian team, and Bangladesh was ahead in the game before rain intervened. Rishabh Pant has been given a chance to play the game while Dinesh Karthik has been rested before the semi-final game.
Zimbabwe will be looking to produce yet another upset and end the tournament on a high. A win for them would ensure a place in the next T20 World Cup.
“We will bat. It’s the preference of the team to bat first, nothing to do with the pitch. We just want to bat first and give a chance to our bowlers to defend. One change, Rishabh Pant plays instead of DK, he is the only guy who hasn’t played a single game on this tour including the warm-up games, we wanted to give him a game. Nothing changes, we need to do well as a team,” said Rohit Sharma after winning the toss.
“We were looking to bowl first. The ball might skid through in the evening under lights. A couple of changes, Wellington and Munyonga are in, Milton has struggled a bit and we wanted to give Tony a chance. Luke Jongwe has an injury and we wanted the spin of Wellington Masakadza,” said Craig Ervineduring the toss.
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Zimbabwe (Playing XI): Wesley Madhevere, Craig Ervine(c), Regis Chakabva(w), Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Tony Munyonga, Ryan Burl, Tendai Chatara, Richard Ngarava, Wellington Masakadza, Blessing Muzarabani. (ANI)
