Hardik Pandya in full flow makes India a different side: Lance Klusener

Zimbabwe batting coach Klusener feels ODI series vs India will be learning curve for teamCHENNAI: The last fortnight has given Zimbabwe something to cheer about as they defeated Bangladesh in both T20 and ODI series at home. What was more heartening was to see the team notching up strong shows despite the absence of senior players like skipper Craig Ervine, all-rounder Sean Williams and pacers Blessing Muzarabani and Tendai Chatara. Barring Williams who missed due to personal reasons, others were out injured.

Now they have an even stronger challenge at hand, with India arriving to take on the African nation in a three-match ODI series. Former South African all-rounder Lance Klusener, Zimbabwe's batting coach, spoke to TOI on the upcoming series, the areas he wants his side to improve upon and more. Excerpts:What are your expectations from the India-Zimbabwe series?It's a series we all are looking forward to.

It will be a great learning curve for a team like Zimbabwe to play against a top side like India. It's a good challenge for us and an opportunity for our players to learn and grow. However, we want to play good cricket and we are asking India to bring their A game as well.

If they do that, they may be too strong for us but if we play well and put them under pressure, then ODI cricket is a funny game and anything can happen. Where do you feel the Zimbabwean batting unit can improve in the coming months?I think we would like to be more consistent from the batting point of view. Yes, we won the series against Bangladesh but we didn't necessarily get off to good starts.