On Tuesday, the BCCI announced three changes to India's squad for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe. Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana were named as replacements for Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, and Shivam Dube were the only members of India's victorious T20 World Cup squad who were also named in the squad to travel to Zimbabwe. India won the final against South Africa on Saturday morning, but have been stuck in Barbados after hurricane Beryl forced the island's international airport to be temporarily shut down. It has been reported that the squad will probably return to India by Wednesday evening.

The initial plan had been for the trio to join the Harare-bound set of players but likely due to their travel delay, they will instead arrive in India first and move on to Zimbabwe only after the conclusion of the first two matches of the series. Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana have been called up in their places.

 

Sai Sudharsan is currently in England, playing for Surrey in a County Championship game against Essex. The match will end by July 3, leaving him with enough time to travel to Harare to join the squad. He is coming off the back of a solid IPL 2024, where he scored 527 runs in 12 innings. He had received an ODI call-up in December and debuted against South Africa, but this is his first T20I selection.

Jitesh has been in poor form of late, with his latest IPL season yielding just 187 runs at a strike rate of 131. He has long been seen as a finishing option for India with the bat and last donned the blue shirt against Afghanistan in Indore earlier this year. He was also part of India's squad at the Asian Games in 2023.

Rana's selection comes on the back of a breakout IPL 2024, and many felt he was unlucky to miss out on the initial squad. He picked up 19 wickets for the title-winning Kolkata Knight Riders, impressing with his bowling in the death overs and in the powerplay. This is his first national team call-up in any format.

Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Avesh Khan, and Khaleel Ahmed, travelling reserves for the T20 World Cup, are also part of the squad for the Zimbabwe tour. However, unlike Jaiswal, Samson and Dube they will be available for the first two matches against Zimbabwe. The first match of the series is on Saturday, July 6.

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