Shubman Gill accepts responsibility for India's terrible first-T20I defeat to Zimbabwe

In the first T20 International contested in Harare on Saturday, July 6, just one week after Men in Blue emerged victorious in the T20 World Cup 2024, Zimbabwe pulled off a shocking upset victory over Shubman Gill's Team India.

Zimbabwe lost nine wickets and only scored 115 runs when batting first. The Indian spinners were very good in limiting the batsmen from Zimbabwe.

However, in the second innings, India's problems persisted. The lowest total India has ever failed to chase in a T20 international match was reached when they were eventually knocked out for just 102 runs.

India lost four wickets in the first five overs of their chase, which got off to a terrible start. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Dhruv Jurel each scored just seven runs, while openers Abhishek Sharma and Rinku Singh were out for ducks.

Riyan Parag was only able to contribute two runs. The team's top scorer, Indian skipper Shubman Gill, amassed 31 runs from 29 balls prior to being removed by Sikandar Raza. The seventh batsman out, Ravi Bishnoi, made nine runs off of eight deliveries.

After removing Avesh Khan for 16 runs and Mukesh Kumar, Raza grabbed two more wickets. Chatara's dismissal of Washington Sundar with 16 runs remaining in the last over decided India's destiny.

After his side's devastating loss to a small team that could not even make it to the 2024 T20 World Cup, India skipper Shubman Gill was devastated and said that it was in his team's best interest to have batted longer and lasted till the very end.