BCCI Forced To Make 3 Changes In Indian Team For Zimbabwe T20Is. Harshit Rana Among 3 Players Added

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced three changes to India’s squad for the 5-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. The trio of Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana have been added to the roster for the first two matches, as replacements for Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who are still in Barbados.

Originally slated to join the Zimbabwe-bound squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series starting Saturday, 6th July, the trio will travel to India first with the rest of the ICC T20 World Cup-winning Indian squad before departing for Harare. Samson, Dube and Jaiswal couldn’t fly out earlier from Barbados as a hurricane shut down the airport at the island nation.

India’s squad for 1st & 2nd T20I against Zimbabwe: Shubman Gill (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande, Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Harshit Rana

The unforseen circumstances has forced BCCI to name replacements for the three players.

Pacer Khaleel Ahmed and batter Rinku Singh, travelling reserves for the T20 World Cup, are also currently in Barbados. The BCCI has not named replacements for the duo even though they are in the squad for Zimbabwe series.

Sudharsan is currently playing county cricket for Surrey at the Oval in London. He is expected to leave for Harare immediately.

Players Still Stuck In Barbados

India’s T20 World Cup-winning team is expected to fly from Barbados today, with the airport expected to be reopened. 

The World Cup winning team, originally scheduled to depart from Barbados on Monday at 11 AM local time (8:30 PM IST), have been stranded in Barbados for the past two days due to Hurricane Beryl, which resulted in airports and businesses shut down.

The hurricane, which has tensified into an extremely dangerous Category 4 in the past hours, has sparked warnings of life-threatening winds and dangerous storm.

According to latest report from the National Hurricane Centre of US, Beryl, a hurricane which was upgraded to a category four on Monday, has intensified to a category 5 storm after making landfall in the Windward Islands as it churned towards Jamaica.

The hurricane was upgraded to a category four on Monday, bringing life-threatening winds and storm lashed Barbados and nearby islands.

With Agency Inputs