After his team’s series victory against Zimbabwe, Indian all-rounder Riyan Parag, who made his international debut in this series, said that it was special to make his first appearance in Indian colors along with under-19 teammate Abhishek Sharma and praised captain Shubman Gill for his leadership skills throughout the five games. A fine four-wicket spell from Mukesh Kumar and a half-century from Sanju Samson were the highlights as India beat Zimbabwe by 42 runs in the fifth and final T20I in Harare to clinch the series on Sunday.
Speaking after the game at the post-match presentation, Parag said everyone “woke up” after the defeat in the first game. He also said that he and Abhishek, both teammates at the 2018 U-19 World Cup, opened the shirts from the packaging together when they bought them.
“We opened our shirts together. I went to his room, he opened it first and then me. We played in the 2018 World Cup together and for the next 6 years we didn’t play, now we are playing. Doing this with him was very special,” said Parag .
About his partnership with Rajasthan Royals (RR) teammate Sanju Samson, Parag said he spoke to the wicketkeeper-batsman about having a partnership like they used to have while batting together for RR at numbers three and four respectively.
“Once we got wickets at the end we could go big and it was a tricky wicket, happy we managed to put in a good performance,” he added.
On playing with captain Gill, Parag said it was good to play with Gill, who has been playing with him since under-16 cricket.
“He’s been like a captain, even when he wasn’t a captain. On the field he has been exceptional,” he added.
However, Parag did not have a memorable debut after scoring 573 runs in 16 matches in IPL 2024 for RR. He managed to score just 24 runs in two innings and failed to take any wickets.
India won the series 4-1.
Coming into the match, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first. They had India at 40/3 at one point until a 65-run partnership between Sanju Samson (58 off 45 balls, with four and four sixes) and Riyan Parag (22 off 24 balls, with six) and a fine cameo from Shivam Dube (26 off 12 balls, with two fours and two sixes) took India to 167/6 in his 20 overs.
Blessing Muzarbani (19/02) was the choice of Zimbabwe’s bowlers. Richard Ngarva, Sikandar Raza and Brandon Mavuta also took a wicket each.
In the chase, Zimbabwe got off to a good start and were in the game for a good while until Shivam Dube (25/2) made a game changer and a quick elimination of Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza. Dion Myers (34 off 32 balls, with four boundaries and a six), Tadiwanashe Marumani (27 off 24 balls, with five fours) and Faraz Akram (27 off 13 balls, with two fours and two sixes) battled for Zimbabwe , but Mukesh Kumar (04/22) cleared the tail.
Zimbabwe were bowled out for 125 runs, trailing by 42 runs with nine balls to go.
Shivam secured the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his overall performance. Washington Sundar, who scored 28 runs in two innings with a best score of 27 and took eight wickets in the series, received the ‘Player of the Series’ award.
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