India take on Zimbabwe in the first game of the Zimbabwe tri-series and the game will be played at Bulawayo. India goes into the game with a totally new side, as they have rested their seniors, whereas Zimbabwe have a new captain in Elton Chigumbura leading the side. 
With India opting to rest most of the main-stream guys, this series provides a good opportunity for the youngsters to make a mark. In all probability, India will go into this game with Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik to open the batting, and Naman Ojha put on the sidelines. Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja should form the top seven, with the three pace bowlers and a frontline spinner to follow. 
The pace bowling department is even more shorn of experience than the batting. They have an Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh and Ashok Dinda, all of whom have not really played any international cricket and that should make it rather interesting.
From the Zimbabwean perspective, it is their batting that needs to take control. Of course, there will not be too much too much pressure on them given that the opposition bowling is not as strong and experienced as it could be, but the batsmen really need to dig it in.
Chigumbura is a good batsman, but with the role of captaincy allotted to him, things could get pressurising for him, whereas the likes of Tatenda Taibu, Brendan Taylor, Charles Coventry and Andy Blignaut, all need to make some runs at the top. A 25/3 start can never get the side anywhere.
India (1/6 at Stan James) definitely goes into the game as favourite, but the offer of 5/1 (Bet365) for a Zimbabwean win is too good to resist.