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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE women’s national cricket team is set to tour Thailand for a white ball series scheduled for mid-April which will be their first international assignment of the year.
The Lady Chevrons are set to play four Twenty20 International matches and three One Day Internationals scheduled to start on April 19 and all matches will be played at Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok.
Zimbabwe will also be using the series as part of their preparations for the regional and global qualifiers which are scheduled to take part later in the year. Despite not playing much international cricket, the players have been participating in local franchise games which head coach Gary Brent believes has put them in the right shape.
“The tour is very important being the first international of the year and we are looking forward to it, there are qualifiers coming up so it’s a great build-up towards that. Preparations have been going really well, the girls have been playing provincial cricket and that has been very useful in terms of their preparation, the national girls have all stepped up and done really well and that has been a huge positive for us,” said.
He added that having the national team players taking part in the provincial setup also assists those that are coming through as they can see what it takes to perform at the highest level.
As the team prepares for the series, the captain Mary-Anne Musonda is taking part in the FairBreak Invitational T20 in Hong Kong which Brent believes the exposure will come in handy as they are looking at producing good results in the Southeast Asian nation.
“This exposure is great, she will come back with knowledge for the team into how others play, she will certainly bring some ideas to the camp, and it is great exposure for us when our players start to play across the world,” he said.
The final Lady Chevrons squad is yet to be announced by Zimbabwe Cricket and also the dates for the qualifiers are yet to be advised.
Brent and his team missed out on qualifying for the T20 World Cup due to lack of international exposure after falling short and finishing third in the eight-team tournament that took place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Having the opportunity to play international cricket before going to global events will be vital to the performance of the team. – @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter