dyton mupawaenda
Blessing Malinganiza
Zimbabwe Senior women’s team, Lady Chevrons left the country yesterday for India for a 10-day training camp as part of the ICC 2024 T20 Women’s World Cup global qualifiers scheduled for UAE in April.
Lady Chevron’s coach, Walter Chawaguta has described the upcoming training camp in India as key in the team’s preparations for the World Cup qualifiers.
“India is key to our preparations for the global qualifiers,” said Chawaguta.
He revealed that the Indian training camp will focus on intensive skill sessions while it also accords the team with a bonding session.
“In India, we will have a combination of practice matches, intensive skills sessions, and some bonding time as well.
“Our big focus will fine-tune our skills while in match scenarios. It will also allow some of our senior players returning from injury to find their form as well.” said the Lady Chevrons coach.
Chawaguta revealed that after the training camp, the Lady Chevrons have three tours lined up as part of the build-up to the World Cup global qualifiers.
Among the three tours lined up as part of the preparations is a series against Papua New Guinea while the team will have a dance at the All Africa Games scheduled for next month in Ghana.
The Lady Chevrons gaffer believes the All Africa Games and the three tours will play a pivotal role in gauging Zimbabwe’s readiness for the global qualifiers.
“We have three tours lined up as our build-up to UAE.
“Thereafter is the All Africa games, which will give us a good gauge of where we are in terms of preparations.
“Playing teams which we recently played at the Africa Qualifiers will give good feedback on our progress towards UAE,” said Chawaguta.
Having missed some of the senior players during the recent visit by Ireland for a limited-overs series, Chawaguta is keeping his fingers crossed to have his squad back to full strength ahead of the qualifiers.
“Finally we will have a three-match series against PNG at home to seal off our preparations and my hope by then, is that we will have our full-strength squad to play in this series,” he said.
With upcoming players drafted to fill in the gaps left by senior players during the Ireland tour, Chawaguta feels an enlarged pool brings competition to the team.
“A bigger squad is always good for any team because it creates a competitive environment which in turn raises the standard of play.
“With all the players hopefully fully fit in two months, the squad will be tricky to select and that is a good headache for any coach,” said Chawaguta.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter