India vs Zimbabwe: 5 things to look forward to

Team India faces Zimbabwe tomorrow in its last league stage match at Eden Park, Auckland. The boys in blue have played exceptionally well in the tournament so far and have maintained a cent percent winning record. While the match may be a dead rubber in terms of deciding the fate of the quarterfinalists, there is still a lot to look forward to. The pool B toppers must not get complacent and should remain focused. Zimbabwe on the other hand will be playing for pride and thus will be looking to finish their campaign with a win.Here are five things to look forward to in this match:

#1 Ground Realities

The India-Zimbabwe clash is scheduled to be played at Eden Park, Auckland. The ground has proven very tricky to defend with the straight boundaries being only 55 meters. Even a low scoring match bwtween the two hosts Australia and New Zealand was a thriller.

It will be interesting to see if the batsmen decide to specifically target the short boundary and the strategies that the fielding side applies to mask the short boundary advantages. Indian bowlers who have played bulk of their World Cup matches on the vast Australian grounds will have to adjust their game plan in accordance with this ground.

#2 Brendan Taylor\'s farewell match for Zimbabwe

The Wicket-keeper batsmen has signed a three year deal with Nottinghamshire, which is subject to the approval of ECB. The Zimbabwe skipper will thus be ineligible to adorn the national colors of Zimbabwe henceforth. Taylor has been the leading run scorer in this World Cup for the African nation so far with 295 runs. After giving 11 years to Zimbabwe Cricket, he will certainly be looking to sign off with a bang. We wish him best of luck for all his future endeavours. Here is a look at his World Cup career:

Brendan Taylor's World Cup Career

Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	High Score	100s	50s	MoM	MoS
14	14	552	39.42	121	1	3	0	0

#3 Kohli could go past Ganguly

India’s newest Test Captain currently has 22 ODI centuries from 155 matches. He is tied with former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly who has the same number of tons from 311 ODIs. If Virat accomplishes this feat then he will be second only to the great Sachin Tendulkar who has 49 ODI tons for India. Given the great form Kohli has been in this edition of the World Cup, it is very likely that he could go past Dada tomorrow.

#4 Bench in action

With Team India having secured a quarter final clash, it will be interesting to see if they decide to rest any of their key players and decided to test their bench strength. With Ravindra Jadeja being rather mediocre, it will be interesting to see if the team management decides to give Stuart Binny or Bhuvneshwar Kumar a chance to play. After all , it is their final chance to get the permutations right ahed of the key knockout stages of the tournament.

#5 Shami\'s chance to lead the bowling charts

The Bengal pacer has impressed one and all with his impeccable line and length. Shami along with Umesh Yadav have been a revolution in the Indian bowling standards as they have bowled with real pace and fire. Shami who currently has 12 scalps so far in this edition of the World Cup is only three wickets behind New Zealand’s Trent Boult. With a bowling average of 11.75, he is second only to the Australian pace bowling sensation Mitchell Starc whose bowling average is 10.16.

It will be interesting to see if he can add four more scalps tomorrow and manage to go on top of the bowling charts.