Can Zimbabwe cause an upset at the T20I World Cup Qualifiers Down Under?
Zimbabwean cricketers will be feeling a sense of familiarity as they fly into Melbourne for the second time this month. Their last visit to the Australian shores brought them happy memories.
The soul-enhancing win over mighty Australia will now serve as a reminder on their T20I World Cup tour. They will first have to clear the qualifying hurdle to make it into the Super 10.
Late arrival
The Zimbabweans flew into Melbourne in the early hours of Monday morning after a long and exhaustive flight from Harare. Most other teams participating in the group stages of the first round of the T20 World Cup arrived over a week ago.
It was an interesting decision having the team arrive so late in the day, especially considering their first warm-up game was today, on Tuesday afternoon, against none other than the high-flying Sri Lanka. Couple that with the typical west to east jet-lag, which most people suffer from for at least two or three days, the decision certainly does seem odd.
Despite these seemingly glaring obscurities, the team appeared to take off in good spirits as they were given a warm send-off at the Harare airport on Sunday afternoon, with the departure being live streamed on Zimbabwe Cricket's social media platforms.
The recently concluded warm-up game against Sri Lanka would encourage the Zimbabweans. Chasing 188, they fell short by only 33 runs despite having only arrived in Australia.
Encouraging results
Zimbabwe have been playing a somewhat gutsy brand of cricket of late, with big wins coming over Australia, blowing away Bangladesh in both white-ball formats, and running India very close too, in recent months.
All this success of late seems to have coincided with the arrival of new head coach and former Zimbabwean batsman Dave Houghton, who also had a long stint in the UK coaching Derbyshire.
Sources close to the players say Houghton's arrival has made all the difference. The coach said this on Tuesday morning at a training session at the MCG:
"I think my main job so far today has been all about calming the nerves of the guys."
Houghton isn't the only new addition to the coaching box, though. Steve Kirby, who has just finished up his role with Somerset as the bowling coach, also made his way into the setup last week.
All seems to be moving in the right direction for Zimbabwe at present, which seems to be the flow they need, as the team struggled under former coach Lalchand Rajput, who was neither liked by many of the players, nor was very present, as he spent most of his contract away in India.
A not so tough qualifying group
Zimbabwe find themselves in Group B, alongside former champions and T20 giants, the West Indies, as well as current high flyers Ireland and Scotland. The top two teams in the group stages qualify for the Super 10 phase and Zimbabwe will fancy their chances here.
They will definitely be looking at a big win vs Scotland, and then hopefully edging out one of Ireland or the West Indies thereafter. West Indies have been struggling of late. Against Ireland, the focus will be aimed at knee capping their top order and aiming to get rid of the dangerous Paul Stirling as fast as possible. All in all, the Zimbabweans will have hope that the task is very much attainable, assuming they play reasonably well.
Who will Zimbabwe Rely On
Zimbabwe have long relied on a nucleus of a few players to keep them fighting in big games, but that seems to be a dwindling situation as younger players are stepping up and coming to the fore.
It has been a long time of hearing the words, 'Brendan Taylor, Graeme Cremer, and Sean Williams have saved the day!' but now only one of the three remains (an aged Sean Williams).
Sikandar Raza has had an amazing year so far with the bat as he saw himself win the ICC Player of the Month in August. He became the first Zimbabwean to do so, after scoring three centuries against Bangladesh and India.
Raza will be a presence in the the middle order when he takes to the crease for the Zimbabweans as the T20 format suits his explosive brand of batting quite nicely. Regis Chakabva and Craig Ervine have been in good form as both have become accustomed to getting off to fast starts at the top of the innings, and they'll look to continue that for the next couple of weeks.
Sean Williams is and always has been a talisman in the middle for the hosts. Couple that with the enormous hitting power of left-hander Ryan Burl at the end, and Zimbabwe may find themselves surprising a few opponents with some reasonably sized totals this week.
As far as bowling goes, Blessing Muzarabani, who has just come back from a lengthy injury, will be key with the new ball. The six foot 10 inch seamer will be hoping to utilize the pace and bounce of the hard Australian decks, and that could prove quite difficult for opposing batsmen to get on top of.
Sean Williams, Ryan Burl, and Sikander Raza will look to tie up and frustrate the middle overs with their accuracy, as the presence of a big name mystery spinner in Graeme Cremer is no longer around.
Zimbabwe's Squad
Craig Ervine (c), Sean Williams, Wessly Madhevere, Tony Munyonga, Milton Shumba, Wellington Masakadza, Luke Jongwe, Ryan Burl, Brad Evans, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani, Clive Madande, Regis Chakabva, Sikandar Raza, Tendai Chatara.