Smriti Mandhana captains India for first time in T20I series against Zimbabwe

Smriti Mandhana will lead India for the first time as full-time captain in the opening T20I against Zimbabwe on Friday at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur. Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down from the captaincy role across formats.

Niki Prasad makes her India debut in the middle order. The teams are playing a bilateral T20I series for the first time. India named Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma and Arundhati Reddy in the squad.

Zimbabwe's squad includes Josephine Nkomo as captain along with Kelis Ndhlovu, Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano and Sharne Mayers. The live telecast will be available on Star Sports Network and the JioHotstar app. The match starts at 7:00 pm IST.