India hand Ashok Sharma a debut and bowl in opening T20I

Zimbabwe, meanwhile, handed debuts to batter Ben Curran and left-arm seamer Newman Nyamhuri

Toss India chose to bowl vs Zimbabwe

Searching for his first win as India's T20I captain, Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl against Zimbabwe in the first game of the three-match series in Harare.

Iyer took over the reins from Suryakumar Yadav after India successfully defended their T20 World Cup title. But he started his stint with a 2-0 series loss to Ireland, followed by a 4-0 drubbing in England. Iyer is also only the second man to win the toss in each of his first eight international games as captain, after England's Wally Hammond.

India gave fast bowler Ashok Sharma his maiden cap, while Zimbabwe handed debuts to batter Ben Curran and left-arm seamer Newman Nyamhuri.

"It's my first time [in Zimbabwe], so I don't know how the wicket is going to play," Iyer said. "The practice wickets had decent amount of bounce, and I am anticipating the same here."

India went in with three inexperienced seamers in Ashok, Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav, and a lone spinner in Ravi Bishnoi. Shivam Dube and Abhishek Sharma could play the role of the fifth bowler but their batting effectively ends at No. 7.

Zimbabwe fielded four seamers and a spinner. "This is not your typical Harare Sports Club wicket," Sikandar Raza, the Zimbabwe captain, said. "There will be something in [for fast bowlers] at the start but I am not expecting it to last too long. I think there are a lot of runs in this wicket and we are hoping to put those on the board."

The square boundaries are 76 metres and 72 metres. The straight one is slightly longer, 79 metres.

Zimbabwe: 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Ben Curran, 3 Dion Myers, 4 Sikandar Raza (capt), 5 Ryan Burl, 6 Wessly Madhevere, 7 Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), 8 Brad Evans, 9 Newman Nyamhuri, 10 Richard Ngarava, 11 Blessing Muzarabani

India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Prince Yadav, 10 Ashok Sharma, 11 Mayank Yadav