India vs Zimbabwe 1st T20I: The first match of the five-match T20 series between India and Zimbabwe was played on July 6 (Saturday) in Harare. In this match, host Zimbabwe secured a victory by 13 runs.
The Indian team was given a target of 116 runs to win but failed to achieve even this small target. The Indian team was bowled out for just 102 runs in 19.5 overs.
This was only the third T20 loss for the Indian team against Zimbabwe and their lowest all-out score against this team.
With this defeat, India's winning streak in T20 cricket ended, marking their first T20 International loss of the year.
In the final over of the match, India needed 16 runs to win, with Tendai Chatara bowling that over. Washington Sundar was tasked with securing the victory, but he managed only two runs before getting out on the fifth ball.
The major reason for the Indian team's defeat was the poor performance of their batsmen. Among the top-order batsmen, only captain Shubman Gill stayed at the crease for a considerable time, scoring 31 runs.
Besides Gill, Avesh Khan (16) and Washington Sundar (27) were the only ones to reach double figures.
Debutant players Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, and Abhishek Sharma were quite disappointing. For Zimbabwe, captain Sikandar Raza and Tendai Chatara each took three wickets.
Blessing Muzarabani, Brian Bennett, Luke Jongwe, and Wellington Masakadza took one wicket each.
It should be noted that this was the Indian team's first match since the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from T20 Internationals.
Additionally, it was India's first match after winning the T20 World Cup 2024 title.
Key players like Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, and Kuldeep Yadav were rested for this series. Consequently, Shubman Gill was leading the team as captain for this series.