Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
ERIC Chauluka wants his men to make use of their opportunity as the Zimbabwe A cricket side brace for the opening day of the first four-day match against the Bangladesh Emerging side at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium today.
The hosts claimed the 50-over leg 2-0 without breaking a sweat.
The Zimbabwe A batters have failed to convert their starts into match-winning innings, while the bowling has lacked consistency and often got their line and length wrong.
Now, two of Zimbabwe A’s only centurions during the tour so far – Wessly Madhevere and Innocent Kaia – have returned home to join the Chevrons camp ahead of the Bangladesh senior side’s visit at the end of the month.
Among the personnel changes that have been made is the quartet of Tanunurwa Makoni, Dion Myers, Munashe Chimusoro and Johnathan Campbell.
“Look, every player on this tour deserves to be here and every player here is a game-changer,” said Chauluka, the coach of the team.
“It just about when it’s your day, make it count and that is the message I have sent to the boys
“You have to make it count, bat for long and take wickets,” he said.
Zimbabwe A and the Bangladesh Emerging side will today get the four-day leg of their series underway.
The second and final clash is slated for June 24-27.
“Well, the just-ended one-day series offered plenty of lessons for us, especially as we head into the long format that starts tomorrow (today),” said Chauluka.
“If you look at the batting, yes, we had two hundreds but what we lacked in that department was those match-winning scores and performances.
“And, what we lacked really was actually in the middle periods where we faced way too many dot balls.
“If only we converted those dot balls into runs then we would have been in a better position to win one or two of those 50-over games.
“We failed to be as disciplined as we would have wanted in the bowling department with the bowlers failing to hit their marks consistently.
“And, obviously, we did not back our bowlers with our fielding where we dropped some crucial catches,” he said
Chauluka, however, believes that it not all doom and gloom for the team during the series.
In fact, the Zimbabwe A gaffer is of the opinion that the team is one or two tweaks away from actually winning a game or two.
Bongani Ndlovu