new delhi the india mens cricket team led by opener kl rahul left for zimbabwe on saturday morning ahead of the threematch odi series starting from august 18 followed by two more matches on august 20 and 22 at the harare sports clubthe social media accounts of the board of control for cricket in india bcci showed pictures of prasidh krishna deepak chahar shikhar dhawan shardul thakur mohammed siraj ruturaj gaikwad and rahul tripathi in the flightnca head vvs laxman was also spotted suggesting that he could be the head coach for the odi series against zimbabwewhen the indian team was in england for the rescheduled fifth test in edgbaston laxman was with the t20i squad as the head coach in ireland and was present for the first t20i at southampton as wellindia enter the series after defeating west indies 30 in trinidad in july zimbabwe on the other hand are on a high after an impressive 21 series win over bangladesh at home coming after another 21 series win over them in t20isthe series is part of the icc world cup super league and massively important for zimbabwe in order to finish in the top eight of the table if that happens zimbabwe will be eligible for direct qualification to the odi world cup in india next year india have automatically qualified for the mega event by virtue of being the hostsindia will be captained by rahul who was added to the squad on august 11 he will take up leadership duties in place of shikhar dhawan who was earlier named as captain and will now be rahuls deputyrahul has been out of competitive cricket since featuring in the ipl 2022 eliminator on may 25 in kolkata his team debutants lucknow super giants lost to royal challengers bangalore by 14 runs at eden gardensrahul was then named as captain for the fivematch t20i series at home against south africa in june but a groin injury on the eve of the first match in new delhi ruled him out of the series the sports hernia surgery in germany meant that rahul was ruled out of england and ireland tours toohe was set to return during indias t20i series against west indies but a positive covid19 test ahead of the tour meant he wasnt included in trip to the caribbean but with t20 world cup in australia coming close rahul is now fully fit to be back in action for india in odis against zimbabwe followed by asia cup in the uae starting from august 27the odis against zimbabwe also marks chahars comeback to the indian team after nearly six months chahar had sustained a right quadriceps injury while turning out for india in the final t20i against west indies at kolkata and was ruled out of the subsequent t20i series against sri lankawhile at the national cricket academy nca for further management and recovery from the injury chahar picked a back injury which ruled him out of playing ipl 2022