Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra expects Kuldeep Yadav and Deepak Chahar will be amongst the wickets in the second ODI between India and Zimbabwe as well. However, the second game of the three-match series will take place at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on Saturday, August 20. While Chahar claimed three wickets in India’s win in the series opener, Kuldeep went wicketless in the match.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “Kuldeep and Chahar will pick up four or more wickets. If India is batting first, it means bowling later. That implies the batters will run after Kuldeep, he will get wickets. Deepak Chahar might not get that much swing in such a case, he might not get three wickets but he will still get wickets. I believe Rahul and Gill will together score more than 80 runs. I also feel that India will win the toss and bat first and if we lose the toss, they will make us bat first. So in any case, Rahul will definitely get to bat, that’s what I feel.”
Meanwhile, Shubman Gill smashed an unbeaten 82 off just 72 balls in the first game at the same venue. The young opener’s unbroken 192-run opening-wicket stand with Shikhar Dhawan helped Team India register a comfortable 10-wicket win in that game as well. However, Aakash Chopra expects Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza to be amongst the runs for the hosts as well.
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“Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza will score more than 75 runs. If they get to bat first, then their chances are again extremely less but if they get to bat second, which I feel is going to happen here, then they will score more than 75 runs. Surprise Surprise, I feel India will win the match. You also feel that, I also feel that. I think even Zimbabwe feels that they will not be able to win this match even before it has started,” he stated.
On the other hand, Aakash Chopra has also questioned the purpose of the ongoing three-match ODI series between India and Zimbabwe as well.
He asked: “Some matches are like that when they are about to start, you say why are you playing? What is it that you are going to get out of it? You get that sort of feel in India-Zimbabwe matches. The last time when India lost to Zimbabwe, the year was 2013. I was playing cricket, that was the year I gave up playing cricket.”
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Aakash Chopra continued: “We are not talking about the opposition at all, we are talking about how we can make the task difficult for ourselves. The last game was a near-perfect match. People did not get to bat. So what do I expect here? The opposition team is not able to challenge you as much, so find ways to challenge yourselves. I am saying bat first if you win the toss. If you lose the toss, you will anyway get to bat first. In such a scenario, there might be some difficult questions because the new ball moves. I feel if Zimbabwe get to bowl first, they will give us a couple of early tremors.”
“I feel Shikhar Dhawan might nick the left-arm seamer, it’s just a gut feeling. I expect runs from Shubman Gill one more time. There were questions if Rahul should open, I will say you will not see Rahul open,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
