tawandamusarurwa
Don Makanyanga
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC)’s convenor of selectors David Mutendera is confident that the squad that has been selected to do duty in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier has what it takes to secure a place at the global showcase, which will be held in India later this year.
Zimbabwe will host the qualifiers from June 18 to July 9. The Chevrons have been put in Group A, together with former champions West Indies, the United States, the Netherlands and Nepal.
Group B is made up of Scotland, Sri Lanka, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Three top teams from the two groups will proceed to the Super Six, where the best two teams will then qualify for the World Cup.
Mutendera believes they had “selected the best squad that will make us qualify”.
“We are confident that these players will deliver a positive result,” said Mutendera.
The team was selected after the six One-Day matches between Zimbabwe Select and the Pakistan Shaheens, as well as regional games against some county sides.
Zimbabwe Select won the series 4-2.
“The Zimbabwe A and regional matches against the county sides and Pakistan A came at the right time for us to look at other players who could make it into the national team ahead of the ICC World Cup qualifiers,” he said. While there were concerns over Zimbabwe’s batting, Mutendera opines the players’ exposure to international cricket in the past few months could have helped fix the problem.
“The solution to fix the top-order batting was to create competitive matches for the other upcoming players so that they prove their worth at the second-highest tier of cricket, thus creating depth in the national team,” he added.
“Now we have more players to choose from to sort out the batting at the top.
“We have good players at the top and they just need to be more consistent in scoring big runs.” He also welcomed the return to form of some of the Chevrons’ experienced batters.
“Ervine (Craig) has got his form back after scoring two centuries against Pakistan A.
“Innocent Kaia also came short of scoring a century against the same opposition. This is good competition for places at the top batting order and we hope that they carry the recent good form into the World Cup ODI qualifiers.”
Selection of the squad, he said, was premised on players having the ability to play under different conditions.
“Selection is always about picking a player who is able to play in all conditions, able to play all types of bowlers and who is able to bowl well to any opposition on all types of wickets. Yes, you might get players who bat well against pace, or spin or bowl well on certain types of wickets, and we consider all of these aspects when we select.
“So, in conjunction with the coach, we consider all those qualities in a player with the opposition that we will face.”
Zimbabwe squad:
Ryan Burl, Tendai Chatara, Craig Ervine, Bradley Evans, Joylord Gumbie, Luke Jongwe, Innocent Kaia, Clive Madande, Wesley Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava, Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams
Online Reporter