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Don Makanyanga Sports Reporter
After identifying individual weaknesses of the Chevrons in their qualifier preparatory series, the Zimbabwe cricket national team technical department last week conducted one-on-one sessions with the national team players as part of fine tuning the team ahead of the qualifiers set for next week.
Coach Dave Houghton revealed that his technical department had held one on one sessions with the national team players as they worked on individual weaknesses ahead of the T20 Regional qualifiers training camp which starts tomorrow.
“We had one-on-one sessions with all the national team players last week where each batsman had at least two one hour sessions.
“Under normal practice sessions, batsmen bat in pairs, bowlers bowl a number of overs, not much coaching takes place, as they are more preparation for games.
“But with small groups, with one batsman facing the coaches with sling and maybe one bowler, allows for a bit of coaching time, certainly input from coaches, particularly on batting plans and making any small technical adjustments as needed,” said Houghton.
The Chevrons are expected to leave for Namibia this Saturday for the ICC 2024 T20 Regional World Cup qualifiers.
The regional qualifiers will see hosts Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Rwanda battling it out from November 20 to December 1 to decide two spots at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 to be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America.
Houghton added that the recent Namibia tour had given him an opportunity to work on how to turn starts into winning performances.
“We need to work on our starts, whether batting or bowling, we need to start better, more runs less wickets when we batting and less runs, no mistakes in the field and hopefully more wickets, when we bowl.
“We need to turn starts into winning innings,” said Houghton
With Blessing Muzarabani, Sean Williams missing out on the recent tour to Namibia while other senior players battled fitness, Houghton confirmed that all players were now fit and raring to go for the qualifiers.
“As we stand at the moment, all players are now fully fit and ready to play and we will have our best 11 available from day one,” said the Chevrons coach.
Houghton welcomed last week’s Zimbabwe Cricket board decision to have the national team coach to be part of the selection panel as it empowers the coach to have an input on team selection
“I have always asked to have the selection of the final 11 for the day in the hands of the captain and myself, and that has been happening. Being on the selection committee now allows me to learn a bit more of players I may not have seen much of, but whom the selectors have had their eyes on. “It also allows me the opportunity to express as a national coach what I’m looking for from the player,” Houghton said
Online Reporter