Zimbabwe vs. India: In the third Twenty20 International, Washington Sundar wins by a margin of 23 runs as Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad take the lead early.

Now that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have made way, the trip has turned into a tryout to secure positions, with four openers in the lineup.https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/zimbabwe-vs-india-shubman-gill-ruturaj-gaikwad-washington-sundar-9445458/

After Abhishek Sharma’s century in the previous game, it was Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s turn to show what they can offer as India posted another comprehensive win in Harare on Wednesday. After the batting unit powered them to 182/4, Washington Sundar’s Player-of-the-Match spell of 3/15 gave India a 23-run win. This Zimbabwe tour is turning out to be an audition for India’s top order going forward, now that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have retired from Twenty20 Internationals.

With the final two Twenty20 Internationals scheduled for this weekend, India leads the series 2-1.

Prior to the game on Wednesday, Jaiswal had just joined the team, therefore all eyes were on how India will arrange their batting order. It was inevitable that at least one of their four openers on tour would have to bat out of position given their extremely talented roster, as Ruturaj Gaikwad did in the first two games. India, however, went one better and ranked Jaiswal as Gill’s companion at the top.https://24indiannews.com/https-24indiannews-comp83/

This meant that Abhishek, who was brought into the lineup after his thrilling IPL heroics and who opened the last game with a century off 46 deliveries, was demoted to No. 3 and Gaikwad was demoted even lower. Jitesh Sharma, Dhruv Jurel, and Riyan Parag warmed up the bench on Wednesday.

After Jaiswal and Gill shared a 67-run partnership, Abhishek entered the field in the ninth over, well after the Powerplay. He battled with fluency and fell for just ten runs in what were the most batter-friendly conditions they had seen so far this tour.

It was the eleventh over of the innings when Gaikwad reached the middle. He played as an opener who accelerated gradually all the way through the IPL. He had to adopt a new role as a batsman in the middle overs, where teams primarily rely on explosive batsmen.

Brief scores: Zimbabwe 159/6 (Dion Myers 66 not out, Clive Madande 37; Washington 3/15) were defeated by India 182/4 in 20 overs (Gill 66, Gaikwad 49, Jaiswal 36; Sikandar Raza 2/24, Blessing Muzarabani 2/25) by 23 runs.