The Board of Control for Cricket in India has called off India's Zimbabwe tour, which was supposed to take place in the month of July.
BCCI has cited fatigue as the reason for calling off this tour. Reports suggested on Sunday that the tour might be postponed to next year as the board still has unresolved issues with Ten Sports, which holds the broadcasting rights for international cricket in Zimbabwe.
India were supposed to play three ODIs and two Twenty20 (T20) matches from 10 July in Zimbabwe. This would have been a good chance for India to test their bench strength, but it seems that BCCI is more keen on giving rest to the players ahead of a busy cricketing season.
"There have been reports that an issue over Zimbabwe Cricket's broadcasting partner is threatening the forthcoming India tour to Zimbabwe. The position is that ZC is in constant contact with both the BCCI and Ten Sports, over issues which should be resolved before the tour," Zimbabwe Cricket said in a media release.
"If the matters take too long to resolve, ZC and the BCCI might mutually agree to push the tour to next year," Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Wilson Manase stated in the press release.
Their ODI series defeat against Bangladesh might well be another reason behind the board's decision to call off the tour of Zimbabwe. Despite going with a full strength squad for the ODI series, India were handed a series defeat by the rising star of ODI format, Bangladesh.
Surprisingly, most of the Indian players looks jaded and lacked that punch in confidence that they had during the ICC World Cup 2015 in Australia. MS Dhoni went on to say that he can step down from the captaincy if needed. Virat Kohli has been out of form and so is Ravindra Jadeja, who was picked despite his poor show during the World Cup. There are many more areas that India need to work on before their upcoming series. And if they continue with this attitude, the Bangla Tigers might hand them a whitewash in the ongoing ODI series.
