Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra has said that Team India needs to bat aggressively in the upcoming T20I series against Zimbabwe. He added that the Indian batters played conservatively in the preceding two T20I series against Ireland and England as well. However, India will take on Zimbabwe in a three-match T20I series, with the first game to be played in Harare on Thursday, July 23 as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “RoKo (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) are not there, but we are saying thoko. We create an atmosphere like that with the kind of team we pick and the kind of philosophy we talk about, although if we see the previous few games, there was a big question mark on that philosophy. There was nothing carefree. We became extremely conservative. We were a pale shadow of what we can be.”
“You are selecting the team for a fearless approach. However, will you be able to play with that approach? This is the series in which we must assert ourselves. Domination and the opposing team’s decimation should be seen because we are better. However, are we actually better? For that, I want that approach,” he shared again.
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However, Aakash Chopra also shared that India would expect Vaibhav Suryavanshi to replicate Abhishek Sharma’s performance from their last tour of Zimbabwe as well.
“After the 2024 T20 World Cup, we unleashed a left-handed opening batter in Zimbabwe – Abhishek Sharma. He was probably playing at No. 3 at that time, and he went on to become the best T20I batter in the world. We are expecting something similar from Vaibhav Suryavanshi here,” he said.
“He has played only three games at the international level, but he has already had the experience of getting dropped. He is going to make a comeback because he didn’t play the last match for India. So, the focus will be on him. You haven’t even picked Sanju because you wanted to give full chances to Vaibhav. So this is the opportunity,” he concluded.
