India vs Zimbabwe T20 World Cup: 3 Changes India can make for IND vs ZIM match

India vs Zimbabwe: After losing to South Africa in Perth, India came back strongly in Adelaide and defeated Bangladesh in a rain-affected close encounter. Bangladesh put India in a spot of bother before the rain happened. Indian pacers had no clue to the shots of Liton Das. India will have this in mind, as they prepare to take on Zimbabwe in a must-win encounter.

Coach Dravid and Captain Rohit Sharma will be keen to address those issues before going to the next match. As implied by Rohit before the World Cup, this Indian team is quite flexible in their approach and may not stick to just one playing XI or plan for every match. Keeping this in mind, let’s see the 3 possible changes that India can make for their next match against Zimbabwe.

1. Chahal to replace Axar

Axar Patel so far has had very little role to play in the matches that India played in this world cup. On the bowling front, he has just bowled 1-2 overs per match and hasn’t been able to take wickets at regular intervals like how he used to do in spinning tracks in India. On the batting front also, his contribution is close to nil so far. He hasn’t been able to hang in there and has lost his wicket cheaply. With Zimbabwe being a less strong opponent and considering their weakness against spin, India could bring in an attacking spinner like Chahal in place of Axar to help the team to get some wickets in the middle overs.

2. Rest for Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda to replace him

With the opposition being Zimbabwe, India is most likely to win this match and qualify for the semifinals. In that case, India could rest their most important and injury-prone player, Hardik Pandya to help him get fresh for the knockouts. Deepak Hooda could replace him in the eleven to provide some batting support in the absence of Pandya.

3. Ashwin to play the role of a floater

India’s move to user Axar Patel as a floater has failed big time. Whereas Ravichandran Ashwin has shown some great promise with the bat in whatever little opportunities he has got so far in this world cup. So India could use his batting form to great advantage and can use him as a floater instead of Axar like how Rajasthan Royals did in this IPL.