ZIM vs IND 2nd ODI Preview & Prediction

If IND Bat First

Predicted score: 260

KL Rahul is likely to open the innings for India alongside Mandeep Singh or Faiz Fazal. The former has represented India before at the international level and he is going to be among the key batsmen in this series. Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav have all toured Zimbabwe before and scored centuries at the Harare Sports Club. With skipper Dhoni down the order playing the role of a finisher, India will need a good innings from Rahul, Rayudu and Pandey at the top to propel them to 260 and above.

Zimbabwe might give the new ball to Tendai Chisoro and Neville Madziva who were two of the leading wicket-takers in their last ODI series against Afghanistan in the UAE. Captain and leggie Graeme Cremer has bowled well in the recent past and he will be the one to watch out for on this kind of surface. Sikandar Raza could also be handy on this wicket with his off-breaks in the middle stage of the innings. Zimbabwe will have to keep chipping away at the wickets if they are to restrict India below the 250-mark.

Our Prediction

Much to Zimbabwe's relief, India have come without the likes of Kohli, Rohit, Dhawan, Jadeja, Ashwin and a few others. MS Dhoni will be leading a bunch of fresh faces and relatively inexperienced players in this tour, so the hosts will be fancying their chances against a second-string team in their home conditions. But Zimbabwe have faced India many times before at this venue and have only one win over them which came way back in 1998. The visitors, on their last two tours here, had whitewashed the hosts 3-0 both the times. So India definitely have a big psychological edge over them.

Although Zimbabwe feature plenty of talented players in their side and there have been many unexpected results in Cricket before, a Zimbabwean victory over India will still be an unlikely outcome. So we predict India to beat the hosts in the 2nd match of this ODI series.