Zimbabwe bank on West Indies win confidence to challenge India in T20I series

Zimbabwe captain Josephine Nkomo said her team would draw confidence from their historic win over the West Indies as they prepare for the T20I series against India. Last month, Zimbabwe defeated their Caribbean opponents by four wickets to earn their first points in the ICC Women's Championship. The victory was also only their second ODI win against a Full Member nation.

Zimbabwe restricted the West Indies to 139, with Nyasha Gwanzura returning career-best figures of 10-0-33-4, before completing the chase with 55 balls to spare. Captain Nkomo contributed 30 runs to the successful chase.

"Of course, it was a big confidence booster for us to win a game against the West Indies, one of the best women's teams in the world. Taking that confidence into this series will play a huge part," Nkomo said in the pre-match press conference.

ZIMBABWE LOOKING TO LEARN FROM INDIA

Nkomo called playing India on their home soil a valuable opportunity, saying Zimbabwe were eager to learn and inspire youngsters back home. She also stressed the importance of taking each match as it comes and delivering their best performances.

"Of course it's a great opportunity to be playing a team like India, especially in India, and we don't take that lightly. We're super excited and we're hoping to actually learn a lot and actually take it back home and hopefully inspire the young ones back at home," Nkomo said.

"For now, I think we should take it game by game and focus on doing our best in every match. If things go well for us on the day, we'll take it from there," Nkomo added.

Zimbabwe have retained the same 15-member squad for their historic first bilateral series against India. The three T20Is will be played in Raipur on October 16, 18 and 20, while the three ODIs are scheduled for October 23, 25 and 28 in Vadodara. The ODI leg will count towards the ICC Women's Championship 2025-29, giving Zimbabwe another opportunity to earn valuable points.