Chevrons hold training camp in Bulawayo

THE Zimbabwe senior men’s national cricket team are holding a training camp in Bulawayo as part of their preparations for the tour of Bangladesh, in early May.

The Chevrons’ training camp commenced on Monday and comes to an end today at Queens Sports Club, where they will play another inter-squad match to round up their preparations.

Queens Sports Club has been generally a slow wicket, similar to what they are most likely to encounter in the Asian nation thus, the move to have training take place in Bulawayo.

Stuart Matsikenyeri, who will be in charge of the team in Bangladesh on an interim basis said everything has gone well so far and coming over to Queens Sports Club was a deliberate move.

He added that prior to their coming together, the players had been practising on their own.

“We got together as a group on Monday, but the guys have been training in their different centres prior to that. The guys have been putting in some really good work and this week is about cleaning up and polishing up as much as we can, so as cricket goes, some of them are looking really good.

“With our program, we are playing three matches, which is a good thing for us. We chose Queens because it replicates what we will most likely face in Bangladesh, so this was the correct venue to come for that and it’s been going okay so far,” said Matsikenyeri.

Matsikenyeri stressed the importance of having solid opening partnerships, something which the Chevrons have been struggling with in the past.

He said if they manage to get that right, they will be able to compete well and it’s work in progress.

“For a while now, we have been trying to sort out our top order batting. If we can get some strong starts for our middle order to really come out and express themselves we will find ourselves in strong positions, so we have been trying to work on that and it’s going okay in spaces, but obviously, we have some work to do on it,”he said.

Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are scheduled to play five T20Is, which the Tigers will be using as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup that will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).

The series is set to commence at the beginning of May and the first three T20Is, from May 3, will be played in Chattogram, while the last two matches will be held in Dhaka.

After tomorrow’s conclusion, the team will head to Harare, where they will hold training sessions under lights.

For Matsikenyeri and his charges, going to Bangladesh will not be an easy task, but he believes they will fight on to get the best possible results.

“Pressure is where we live, there’s always pressure, but our job is to embrace it and make the most of it. Going into Bangladesh now, there are always points to play for which is quite important. Their rank is quite high, so some victories will be very valuable for us.

“We finish the week tomorrow (today) and then we go back to Harare and hopefully get a couple of night practices because we are scheduled to play three night games there and we are off on Saturday,” said Matsikenyeri.

The last time, the two teams played against each other in a bilateral T20I series was in July of 2022 in Harare, and the Chevrons won the three match series 2-1.

Zimbabwe Tour of Bangladesh fixtures:

First T20I: May 3,

Second T20I: May 5,
Third T20I: May 7,( First Three will be played in Chattogram)

Fourth T20I: May 10, Fifth T20I: May 12, (Final Two games will be played in Dhaka). — @brandon_malvin