India vs Zimbabwe Preview & Prediction | 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup | Super 8 Group 1
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Both India and Zimbabwe are coming off the back of crushing defeats in their respective Super 8 openers, so neither can afford another loss here.
Date & time:
Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, India
Weather: Cloudy with sunny intervals early on in play and temperatures remaining in the late-twenties throughout.
How to watch: UK – Sky Sports & Sky Go / USA – Willow TV
Tickets: Click here for the latest ticket information for USA vs USA
India vs Zimbabwe prediction
India’s batting completely misfired and paid the price in their first game since racing through the group stage with a 100% record. They gave up a score of 187/7 against South Africa and the reply never got going, the hosts losing three powerplay wickets and failing to put together a large partnership as scoreboard pressure took its toll, forcing them to take risks and ultimately lose more wickets, before being bowled out for just 111. Their 76-run defeat was India’s first in 13 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup games following 12 straight wins, not to mention their heaviest loss in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup history.
Needless to say, we should see India react strongly, with intensity, desire and anger. Zimbabwe are walking into a very daunting arena in Chepauk and are doing so on the back of a thrashing themselves. They lost by a whopping 107 runs against West Indies on Monday and whilst having done brilliantly to reach this stage of the competition, it feels like they may be a little out of their depth as this point with the tournament reaching its business end.
India should win this game easily and one player likely to be in-among the wickets is Varun Chakravarthy. His spin-bowling is well-suited to the Chepauk pitches and with ten scalps to his name already this T20 World Cup (an average of two per game), expect him to add to that tally.
India vs Zimbabwe tip: India to win and Varun Chakravarthy to take over 1.5 match wickets
