peter
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
HAVING shone in Bangladesh and Pakistan last year, young all-rounder Wesley Madhevere has had a series to forget in the ongoing tour of Afghanistan.
Madhevere, who made his Test debut in this tour, has scored ducks in his first three Test innings.
In the first T-20 played on Wednesday, the 20-year-old dropped a catch and only manage to score two runs.
It has been a disappointing tour for the highly rated all-rounder, but Zimbabwe senior cricket team coach Lalchand Rajput has backed him to find his feet soon.
“Cricket is a funny game, l keep on saying it will take you up and it will drop you down as well. So, we are trying to be positive with him because as it is his confidence is low. So, we do not want to put more burdens on him.
“We just have to be confident in him and back him up. He is a great kid for Zimbabwe, he has done well in Pakistan and Bangladesh. l’m sure it’s just a phase and he will welcome that,” Rajput said.
Afghanistan won the first T20 by 48 runs to notch up their ninth T20 win over Zimbabwe in 10 encounters.
The next T20 will be played on Friday, with the last game set for Saturday.
“Let’s be honest we had just two days to switch from the red ball to the white ball. Some players adjust quickly, some take a bit of time to adjust. It takes a bit of time into white ball mode.
“If you look at the first power play, we never bowled to our plan, you will agree that when we bowled in the second spell at the death we bowled very well. I think it was good that we kept them below 200. We will come back strongly in the next game. It’s not right that we have given away too many extras, but we will come back stronger,” said Rajput.
He said his team also needed to improve with the bat.
“As a batting unit we have to pull up our socks. We never had a partnership. If you look at Afghanistan, they had a very good partnership to start with, and in cricket if you have a good partnership it has a good effect on the last five overs as well so that we get big scores.
“To be honest l think we need to have a strong partnership at the top and get big runs. To beat Afghanistan, we need to score over 170 runs,” he said.
-@innocentskizoe
Online Reporter