Zimbabwe's Innocent Kaia confident of comfortably winning the ODI series against India

Before heading into the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup, the India team is all set to tour Zimbabwe for a three-match ODI series. This will be India's first visit to Zimbabwe since 2016 when they played a three-match Twenty20 International series there.

India has been a strong team across forms, coming off a 3-0 ODI series sweep and a 4-1 T20I series triumph against the West Indies. Despite this, Zimbabwe batter Innocent Kaia is convinced that the hosts would pull off a massive upset against India. In an interview with Times Now, Innocent projected that Zimbabwe will win the ODI series 2-1. He also confessed that he wants to be the series' best scorer, with some centuries to his name.

"2-1 in favour of Zimbabwe. We win the series. As for personal expectations, I want to be the leading run scorer and score hundreds. Simple plan. I just want to score runs to be the leading run-scorer in the series. That’s my goal," he said.

Zimbabwe enters the series in the wake of a 2-1 series win against Bangladesh in T20Is and ODIs. However, this is only their first significant victory at home since a 2-1 victory over Ireland in an ODI back in 2015/16.

"It’s not about the ticking of things, but it’s just the mindset. When David (Houghton, head coach) came in, he always just told us and taught us that we have to play positive cricket and that’s what we are doing. We are not afraid to play our shots anymore; it’s just that things have changed and it’s not something that is really big," Kaia added.

India in Zimbabwe

Since their first tour in 1992, India has played 13 times in Zimbabwe. The hosts have only won two of those series across all formats, whereas India has been undefeated since 2001, winning six times and drawing two. India has won three consecutive ODI series in 2013, 2015, and 2016, as well as two T20I series and one Test series.