Former Indian cricketer and gun fielder, Mohammad Kaif has shown massive praise for Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill. He believes the duo would open against Zimbabwe in the opening match. Speaking in a live chat organized by Sony Sports Network, Kaif said this when asked about India’s opening combination for the Zimbabwe tour.
“It will be a tough call but there must be a plan definitely. Even though VVS Laxman has travelled with the team as the acting coach but there must have been a conversation between him and head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma about their future plans. I am sure there must be a plan, and we’ll get to know when the playing eleven is announced.
“Yes, it won’t be an easy call to decide the opening combination because Shubman Gill has had a good run in the West Indies. He’s shown a lot of promise. Shikhar has been doing it consistently and KL Rahul we all know what a quality batter he is. But it will be interesting to see at which position Rahul bats, he’s opened for India and also batted at number five. So, it will be interesting to see where he bats but to me, the opening combination of Gill and Dhawan looks good and they should get a longer run,” added Kaif.
Zimbabwe team of 2002-2003 was much stronger- Mohammad Kaif
Kaif has also been impressed with India’s bowling unit for the tour and believes it to do well despite being inexperienced and young. Speaking about India’s young bowling lineup, he said,
“They might be inexperienced but they’ve been putting up dominating performances whenever they got a chance. You look at Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna. They have all done exceedingly well and won games for their teams. So, it won’t be easy for this Zimbabwe side to tackle these young guns.
“Also, if you compare the current Zimbabwe team with the one which we used to face back in 2002-2003, it is very weak. The Zimbabwe side of the early 2000s was very strong and I don’t think the current team should pose much of a threat to this Indian team which looks very balanced. But you can’t get complacent,” the former India batter added further.
India are scheduled to play the first of three-match ODI series on August 18th at 12:30 PM IST.
