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Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe senior men’s cricket team players are expected to assemble in Harare today to begin their preparations for the upcoming white-ball series against Ireland.
The six-match series will start off with the T20I matches pencilled in for January 12, 14 and 15, followed by the ODI fixtures set for January 18, 20 and 23. All matches will be played at Harare Sports Club.
This will be Zimbabwe’s first international outing since they impressed at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia where they reached the Super 12 stage.
But Zimbabwe, just like the Irish, have not played any international game since their participation at the ICC T20 World Cup in October-November.
In a previous interview with The Herald, Chevrons head coach Dave Houghton said the players needed to recover from a busy schedule that culminated in the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
They had started off their run of international assignments in May when they hosted Namibia and then Afghanistan in June, leading to the World Cup Qualifier in Bulawayo later the same month. They had little time to rest afterwards as they played more games against Bangladesh, India and Australia before departing for the T20 World Cup finals, where they progressed to the second round of the tournament for the first time in history in November.
“We needed a bit of a break because we played almost non-stop since June,” said Houghton.
“But we finished the year on a reasonable high. I think our cricket has improved over the last six months.
“We are playing a decent brand of cricket. The most important thing for me is when we kick off the new year against Ireland we should be able to go out there and play that same brand of cricket. Ireland are a good side these days.
“They have some good players, some players who get exposure to international franchise cricket events, like Paul Stirling, and (Andrew) Balbirnie who has played around the world.
“These guys are experienced cricketers. They are by no means push-overs. So it’s a tough tour for us but it’s one I’m relishing,” said Houghton.
“We still want to continue to play our brand of cricket which has been fearless. Within that, unfortunately, we may have some who don’t score enough runs and so on.”
Ireland have since named their squad led by Andrew Balbirnie for the tour.
Online Reporter