Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIMBABWE and Namibia are set to resume their rivalry when the two nations clash in a three-match T20 series at Queens Sports Club next week.
The short white-ball series is set to act as a precursor to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers, which Zimbabwe will host from September 21 to October 4.
At the qualifiers, eight nations will tussle it out for the two remaining slots with the finalists going on to join South Africa as the continents representatives at the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup that will be held in India and Sri Lanka.
The eight nations are Kenya, Botswana, Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and of course, Namibia and hosts Zimbabwe.
However, Zimbabwe and Namibia will clash in three T20 matches scheduled for September 15, 16 and 18 with the matches expected to help the two nations fine-tune their charges ahead of the qualifiers.
Zimbabwe Cricket have since named an unchanged 15-member squad from the team that took part in the just-ended series against Sri Lanka.
This means Sikandar Raza will continue to lead from the front and he will be joined by the likes of Sean Williams, Blessing Muzarabani, Brian Bennet, Ryan Burl, Brad Evans, Richard Ngarava and Tony Manyonga.
The Chevrons’ youth brigade who include Tashinga Musekiwa, Dion Myers, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Trevor Gwandu and Tinotenda Maposa will get battle for places in the side that will do duty in the qualifiers.
However, all eyes are likely to be on the duo of Brendan Taylor and Wellington Masakadza, who both failed to take part in the series against Sri Lanka due to fitness issues.
Raza gave an update on the pair.
“Wellington (Masakadza) has passed his fitness test and should be good to go.
“As it pertains to BT (Taylor), we will only know in a few days’ time.
“However, from what I heard, it is looking very promising and that he will be good to go as well,” said Raza.
While it seems rather unorthodox for these two nations to be engaging in a series so close to the qualifiers, the three matches do offer Zimbabwe coach Justin Sammons fine-tune his Chevrons.
While there have been bright spots in performances from the likes of Sean Williams, Brian Bennett, Ben Curran and Raza they have been often left to go at it alone as they lacked support from their fellow batters.
If Zimbabwe are to avoid the humiliation of missing out on another T20 World Cup, the time has come for their batters to come to the party.
Only this past weekend, the Chevrons struggled to chase down 80 runs, which turned to be Sri Lanka’s second lowest T20 total during the second match of their three-match series.
Marumani and the opening dilemma
Sammons and the Zimbabwe Cricket selectors, have a serious selection headache ahead of the qualifiers.
Graeme Cremer has availed himself for selection and the return of the younger Masakadza should strengthen Zimbabwe’s bowling unit.
Taylor’s return, however, does complicate Tadiwanashe Marumani’s place in the team.
With fitness apparently an issue Taylor and the selectors high on Marumani, picking both players could affect other departments.
Marumani seems to be one of the players the selectors have tipped as one for the future but the 23-year-old has done very little to justify his continued place in the team.
In 48 innings, the opener has only scored four-centuries in T20 cricket which seems to be his favoured format.
Of the four, only one has come against top opposition and that was his 51 runs off 44 balls during Zimbabwe’s eight-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in the third and final T20 of the series.
Marumani’s knock helped Zimbabwe to what should have been a defendable 191 for eight on a batting friendly pitch at Harare Sports.
The other three have come against minnows or associate nations like Rwanda, Seychelles and Gambia.
