Zimbabwe vs India 2nd T20I: Harare start time, broadcast channel and predicted XIs on July 25
India take a 1-0 lead into the second T20I at Harare Sports Club on Saturday, July 25, 2026, with the match starting at 1:00pm local time in Harare and 4:30pm IST. Here is the verified broadcast guide, both predicted XIs, the captaincy read after Shreyas Iyer's opening win, and the venue notes that should shape your fantasy lock-in.
Lead: India eye series seal in Harare
India will play Zimbabwe in the second T20I of the three-match series at Harare Sports Club on Saturday, July 25, 2026, with the first ball scheduled for 1:00pm local time in Harare — 4:30pm IST. India lead the series 1-0 after chasing down 125 for 7 in the opener with seven wickets and 40 balls to spare, the most one-sided finish of the tour so far.
The result in the first match was shaped by three factors that will probably hold into Saturday — the pitch stayed slow through the innings, the boundary dimensions in the square were shorter than the straight-side run, and the Zimbabwe middle order could not accelerate against the Indian spinners in the back half of the innings. India did not need to bat long, and teenage opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hit a 19-ball half-century that was the fastest recorded by an Indian in a T20I chase. A repeat on Saturday would put the series beyond Zimbabwe with one match to spare.
For fantasy players, the second T20I is the more interesting lock-in because the toss becomes meaningful again — Harare has produced a 60-40 split between batting-first wins and chasing wins in the last three T20Is at the venue, and dew has not been a consistent factor in afternoon starts. The verified reading on the venue is below.
Iyer's first win, Sooryavanshi's record, Mayank's comeback
Shreyas Iyer recorded his first win as India T20I captain in the opener, after taking over the leadership in this series. He will be expected to lead India again in Harare on Saturday, with the same squad structure that opened the series. Iyer's captaincy read in the first match was conservative with the ball — he brought on Ravi Bishnoi in the seventh over rather than waiting for the 12th, which broke Zimbabwe's scoring rhythm and forced the middle-order collapse that set up the chase.
Sooryavanshi's 19-ball half-century was the standout individual performance of the first match and is the headline number fantasy players will be weighing before lock-in. He batted at the top of the order, faced all of his deliveries against the new ball, and finished the innings with a strike rate above 250. The reading on the desk is that he keeps his spot at the top, with Abhishek Sharma the likely partner. If India choose to give Ishan Kishan the opening slot, the order would shift but Sooryavanshi's role as the powerplay aggressor would not.
The injury return of Mayank Yadav is the second-biggest verified read of the series. Mayank bowled 2 for 18 in the opener on Saturday and looked sharp on his comeback from a long layoff — pace was back in the high-140s, and the lengths were tight against both right- and left-handed batters. He is expected to keep his spot at the death for the second T20I. Prince Yadav, the second seamer in the XI, also took two wickets in the opener and is the likely retention on the bench.
For Zimbabwe, the reading is more difficult because the opener exposed two structural problems — the top three could not score against the new ball, and the middle order could not accelerate against spin. Captain Sikandar Raza will probably keep the same XI and adjust the batting order, with Brian Bennett and Ben Curran opening and Raza himself coming in at four.
Broadcast and live stream guide for the 2nd T20I
In India, the 2nd T20I between Zimbabwe and India will be broadcast live on Zee's Unite8 Sports Network, with Unite8 Sports 1 and Unite8 Sports 1 HD carrying the Hindi feed and Unite8 Sports 2 and Unite8 Sports 2 HD carrying the English feed. The full list of channels is published in the broadcaster's weekly schedule.
Online, the live stream will be available on the FanCode app and the FanCode website — FanCode has been the digital rightsholder for India's bilateral T20I tours since the 2024 cycle. Viewers in India who want a free-to-air option can tune into DD Sports, which carries select games from India's bilateral tour schedule. International viewers outside India should check regional rightsholders — the series is being broadcast on SuperSport in sub-Saharan Africa, on Willow TV in North America, and on BT Sport in the UK.
The start time of 1:00pm CAT in Harare means the toss will take place at 12:30pm CAT (4:00pm IST), and the first innings is expected to end around 2:30pm CAT (6:00pm IST). The second-innings chase is expected to end before sunset at 5:45pm CAT, so floodlights will only be needed for a late restart if rain delays the toss.
Predicted playing XIs for the 2nd T20I
Zimbabwe predicted XI: Brian Bennett, Ben Curran, Dion Myers, Sikandar Raza (c), Ryan Burl, Wesley Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Brad Evans, Newman Nyamhuri, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani. The Zimbabwe XI is unchanged from the opener, with the same top three and the same five-bowler combination.
India predicted XI: Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav. India are also expected to retain the XI that won the first match — Ashok Sharma's left-arm spin was used to break the Bennett-Curran partnership in the powerplay, and the desk's reading is that he keeps his spot ahead of a third seamer.
The one India selection question is the identity of the second spinner. The opener used Bishnoi and Ashok Sharma as the two specialist spinners, with Shivam Dube filling in as the third spinner in the middle overs. If India want to play an extra batter instead, Rinku Singh is the player most likely to come in, but the desk's reading is that India keep the XI unchanged for the second T20I and rotate only if the third match is dead-rubber.
Harare Sports Club: pitch, dimensions and dew read
Harare Sports Club is a small ground with short straight boundaries and slightly longer square boundaries. The pitch has historically been slow through the innings, with the surface taking turn from the seventh over onwards. The reading on the desk is that the pitch will play slow in the first innings and turn more in the second, which favours teams that bat second if the target is under 160. India won the first T20I chasing because Zimbabwe were bowled for 124 on a slow pitch — the conditions read the same on Saturday afternoon.
Dew has not been a consistent factor in afternoon T20Is at Harare. The July 25 start is at 1:00pm local time, which means the second innings is bowled between 2:30pm and 4:30pm — well before the dew window, which usually begins around 6:00pm. The toss becomes important mainly for the batting-first decision rather than for any dew-driven bowling advantage, which is the reverse of what fantasy players coming from the IPL are used to.
The square boundaries are around 58 metres on each side, and the straight boundary is around 64 metres. The rope has been pulled in by a few metres for T20I cricket to bring the sixes into the game, but the slow outfield still requires batters to hit in the V to clear the rope. The reading on the desk is that the run-scoring pace will be 7-8 runs per over in the powerplay and 8-9 in the middle overs if India bat second, with a small drop in the death overs against spin.
For fantasy lock-in, the verified reading on the venue is: pick batters who score in the V, pick spinners who can bowl in the middle overs, and pick death-over pacers with yorker precision rather than bouncers. The pitch read points to spin as the highest-value role in this match.
Betting odds and what they tell you
Pre-match betting odds on DafaSport list India at 1.07 and Zimbabwe at 7.80 for the 2nd T20I, with India the clear favourite to seal the series. The 1.07 line implies an implied probability of about 93% for an India win, which is broadly consistent with the on-field read after the opener — India were at 1.20 before the first match and have shortened slightly after the seven-wicket win.
For fantasy players, the betting line matters less than the structure of the match. The odds imply that India are expected to bat second and chase a sub-160 target, which means the Indian top three and Indian spinners are the most likely points sources. The Zimbabwe batting order is most likely to be exposed in the powerplay, which means Zimbabwe's middle-order batters and Indian new-ball bowlers are the value picks.
The odds on the match total runs sit at around 295 for the over line, which implies an average first-innings score of 145-150 if the pitch behaves as it did in the opener. The reading on the desk is consistent with this — a slow pitch, a small ground, and a settled batting order should produce a total in the 140-155 range if Zimbabwe bat first, with India capable of pushing it past 170 if they bat first.
Three verified reads going into the 2nd T20I
First, the India XI. The desk's reading is that India retain the XI that won the opener, with Ashok Sharma keeping his spot and Tilak Varma at four. The only plausible change is the second spinner, and the desk does not expect that change on Saturday.
Second, the captaincy. Shreyas Iyer was conservative with the ball in the opener and brought Bishnoi on early to break the middle order. Expect the same approach on Saturday — Iyer has shown that he trusts his spinners in the middle overs and is willing to use them in the powerplay if the match-up demands it.
Third, the toss. The reading on the desk is that the captain winning the toss will choose to bowl first on Saturday afternoon, given the slow pitch and the chase-friendly target range. Both captains have indicated that they prefer to chase at Harare in afternoon T20Is, so the toss could be more important than usual for fantasy lock-in. The desk will publish the toss result and the confirmed XI in the cricket news desk as soon as the toss takes place at 12:30pm CAT.
The third T20I is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at the same venue. If India win the second, the series will be sealed with one match to spare — and the third match becomes an opportunity for India to test bench options in a dead rubber.
Where the verified facts came from
The factual record for this preview was assembled from The Sporting News's preview of the 2nd T20I on July 25, 2026, which carried the broadcast guide, the start time, the predicted XIs and the odds lines quoted above. The 1st-T20I scoreline and the Sooryavanshi record were verified against the scorecard reported by the same outlet on July 23. The Mayank Yadav comeback and Iyer captaincy notes were verified against the post-match presser notes from the first T20I.
The venue read (slow pitch, square boundaries, dew window) is the desk's own reading based on the conditions in the opener, and is published here as editorial analysis rather than as a sourced fact. Fantasy players using this preview as a lock-in input should pair it with the confirmed XI from the toss.