{"id":254337,"date":"2026-07-23T14:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/zim-vs-ind-2026-1st-t20i-zimbabwe-vs-india-reactions-and-quotes\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:38:13","slug":"zim-vs-ind-2026-1st-t20i-zimbabwe-vs-india-reactions-and-quotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/zim-vs-ind-2026-1st-t20i-zimbabwe-vs-india-reactions-and-quotes\/","title":{"rendered":"ZIM vs IND 2026, 1st T20I: Zimbabwe vs India Reactions and Quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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India started their three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe on a remarkable note, as they registered a seven-wicket win at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on Thursday, July 23.<\/p>\n

Nothing went right for Zimbabwe after Sikandar Raza lost the toss and Shreyas Iyer invited the hosts to bat first. Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav bowled match-defining spells with the new ball as Zimbabwean batters had a tough time countering them.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe lost half their side inside 14 overs with only 64 runs on the board. Wessly Madhevere and Tadiwanashe Marumani forged a 57-run stand off 37 balls to take Zimbabwe to a respectable total of 125\/7. However, it was never going to challenge a strong Indian batting line-up.<\/p>\n

Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for one run but Vaibhav Sooryavanshi slammed 50 off 19 balls. The youngster hit four fours and as many sixes to rattle the Zimbabwean bowlers. Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer also chipped in with handy contributions as India reached home in 13.2 overs with seven wickets left.<\/p>\n

Blessing Muzarabani bowled a fine spell, picking up two wickets and giving away just 26 runs in his four overs. However, Zimbabwean batters let the bowlers down with an insipid batting display.<\/p>\n

ZIM vs IND: Talking Points<\/h2>\n

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi announces his arrival in international cricket<\/h3>\n

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi<\/a><\/strong> scored just 42 runs in the three T20Is he played against England. However, the 15-year-old showed why he is so highly-rated on Thursday. The left-handed batter brought up his half-century in just 18 balls on a pitch that wasn’t very easy for batting.<\/p>\n

Mayank Yadav impresses on much-awaited international comeback<\/h3>\n

There was moisture in the pitch and the ball was moving around. But take nothing away from Mayank Yadav’s spell. His combination of accuracy and pace was exemplary. Mayank finished with figures of 2\/18 in four overs.<\/p>\n

Shreyas Iyer registers first win as India’s captain<\/h3>\n

Shreyas Iyer was appointed captain ahead of the Ireland series. Under his leadership, India went on a winless streak of seven games. However, Thursday’s win will give him and his team a lot of confidence. It won’t be a surprise if India go on to steamroll Zimbabwe in the remainder of the series.<\/p>\n\n

ZIM vs IND: Who Said What?<\/h2>\n

Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe Captain<\/h3>\n
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[Assessment of the pitch?] Again, not up to the standard I think. In the morning, I think that moisture certainly played a part, but I didn’t think it was going to play a part for that long. I thought it remained tough with the new ball. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit many boundaries up front as well, so the ball stayed new, and because of that, I felt the movement off the deck made batting even tougher. [Were conditions similar to what you’ve experienced recently?] I thought during the Bangladesh ODI series, there was a lot of moisture, and it remained there for a long time. Whereas today, I thought the moisture was there for the first eight to ten or even 12 overs, and apart from that, when India came out to bat, the wicket was very true. So, hopefully we get a better wicket for the next game so that even when we lose the toss, it doesn’t play too big a part. [On recovering from 32\/4 to 125\/7] Yes, definitely. That’s one of the positives. Marumani and Madhevere – it’s a new role as well. I thought they batted really well to give us some sort of a respectable total. We’ll take that as a positive, and hopefully the other guys can chip in as well so that we can put up a competitive total if we bat first.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Shreyas Iyer, India Captain<\/h3>\n
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Exceptional. They were tremendous in terms of execution and me getting my first win, can’t be more happier. (On his his team adapted to conditions) Absolutely, as I mentioned earlier, I was anticipating the bounce and there was decent amount of bounce on this wicket, especially from the hard length. And also it was variable at the start. I personally feel that in both the innings it was there. But exceptional start given by Mayank, the way he bowled in terms of executing his line and length, not giving them room to score runs. I think that’s very critical for us and then Vaibhav coming in the powerplay giving us exceptional start. (Is there a slight concern that you probably didn’t bowl them out a little bit sooner, managed to allow them to get past 120?) In every team there is going to be a batter who is going to take the team to the hilt and post a decent total. I think they analyzed the wicket pretty well and they started building partnerships. That was when I wanted to rotate my bowlers as well and see to it that they get decent rhythm because we’re going to play two more matches over here. So, everyone getting chances and opportunities to come and bowl and bat, that actually gives a lot of confidence to them as well. (On Vaibhav getting his first international fifty) Exceptional batting by him. He’s fearless youngster and the way he approached this innings was phenomenal. So, yeah, I think he’s played here before, so he’s got a fair idea about how the wickets are. He’s got 175 I guess in the under-19 final, so definitely possesses immense confidence when he steps onto the field. So, good to see it today. Good start to the series.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mayank Yadav, Player of the Match<\/h3>\n
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[How are you feeling?] It feels great to contribute to the country in a win. It’s a great feeling, especially coming back after a very long interval. It’s a very special moment for me. [On the conditions] The wicket was pretty good. I was enjoying a lot bowling on this wicket, especially after playing in India. It’s the first time I’m playing in Zimbabwe. I was getting good help from the wicket. The biggest difference was the bounce I got today and the ball was also swinging. I was just hitting the deck and the bounce I was getting was great. [On his fellow seamers] We got the wicket off the first ball. The others kept squeezing more and more in their spells and that helped us to keep them to 120 (125).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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India started their three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe on a remarkable note, as they registered a seven-wicket win at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on Thursday, July 23. Nothing went right for Zimbabwe after Sikandar Raza lost the toss and Shreyas Iyer invited the hosts to bat first. Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav bowled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6803],"tags":[29823,74829,74830,74831],"class_list":{"0":"post-254337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-who-said-what-to-whom","9":"tag-zim-vs-ind-2026","10":"tag-zimbabwe-vs-india-quotes-and-reactions","11":"tag-zimbabwe-vs-india-who-said-what"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}