Riyan Parag, Harshit Rana among 7 IPL stars set for India debut in Zimbabwe; Rohit, Kohli to move away from T20Is

Gautam Gambhir, who is the frontrunner to succeed Rahul Dravid and become the next head coach of the Indian men's cricket team, will have his first assignment as a T20I series against Zimbabwe, starting July 5. India are slated to play five matches in the format at the Harare Sports Club, less than a week after the end of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies. Hence, Gambhir is likely to be handed a fresh T20I side, which is likely to comprise as many as seven top performers from IPL 2024.

While PTI reported that Gambhir's appointment could have a fresh lease of life to Shreyas Iyer's international career, after the Mumbai batter was removed from BCCI's central contract list earlier this year, a lot of young players, who are currently practising at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, are also likely to be included. Some hopefuls include Riyan Parag, the highest run-getter among uncapped players in IPL 2024, and Harshit Rana, who topped the charts in the same category among bowlers.

"Shreyas is currently not at NCA. Here mostly those players are there, who have performed in the IPL and will be in contention for Zimbabwe selection. Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal are all at the camp. Some will go to Zimbabwe T20Is," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma be part of Zimbabwe T20Is?

There have been discussions on whether Rohit and Kohli would continue playing the T20I format after the ongoing World Cup campaign in the Caribbean. While neither has officially addressed the situation, the PTI report added that the two will be shifting their focus away from the format to feature in only ODIs and Tests for the remainder of the season which comprises nine WTC Tests between September 2024 to January 2025.

The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav are also unlikely to feature in the series having been playing constantly since the start of the IPL. While the tour will mostly feature new players, the likes of Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Avesh Khan, and Khaleel Ahmed are also expected to travel to Zimbabwe.