Zimbabwe vs India - Sikandar Raza: The Zimbabwe Talisman India Need To Be Wary Of

India's three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe gets underway from Thursday. All eyes are on the visitors as they have sent a young squad for the tour, with several senior players missing as they will be participating in the upcoming Asia Cup in UAE later this month.

While the focus will be on the form and fitness of KL Rahul, who has been designated captain for the series, the Indians should not take their opponents lightly, especially their batting talisman Sikandar Raza.

The Pakistan-born cricketer has been the mainstay of the Zimbabwe batting for several years now and he recently hit back-to-back centuries against Bangladesh to help his team beat the Asian side.

Sikandar would want to emulate his heroics against the big boys from India as well.

A look at his record since 2021 shows that Raza has been one of the leading batters in 50-over cricket. His tally of 627 run in 13 matches at an average of 62.70 is the fourth highest in international cricket behind Babar Azam, Rassie van der Dussen and Quinton de Kock.

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His form at Harare has been tremendous and he is now the third highest run getter in ODIs at the venue behind Zimbabwe greats like Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza.