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Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL cricket team coach, Heath Streak is anticipating a tough tour of Scotland where Zimbabwe will play the Scots in two One Day Internationals on Thursday and Saturday.
With Scotland having recorded an upset seven wickets victory over Sri Lanka last month in a tour match the Sri Lankans used as warm up for the International Cricket Council Champions Trophy, Streak is well aware that the two fixtures will not be a stroll in the park. He has emphasised the need to get their tour off to ideal start by winning against Scotland.
“It’s important that we start the tour well, the guys expect them to be tough at home, hopefully we can start off on a strong note, they beat Sri Lanka so they can be tricky to beat, they have players who play in the English county system. We need to build some confidence, we expect Scotland to give us two hard games,’’ said Streak.
National team players have been busy in the Pro50 Championship which concluded last Tuesday and was won by the Bulawayo Metropolitan Tuskers. They trained together on Wednesday and Thursday, were given Friday as well as yesterday off prior to the team’s departure today.
Streak expressed happiness with the amount of match preparedness his players got ahead of the tour. He believes that it would have been great to play some warm up matches when they get to Sri Lanka which have however, not been arranged.
“I am happier with the amount of match practice we had in advance of tour. It would have been nice to have a warm up match in Sri Lanka. It will be tough to beat them but we feel we can if we play to our potential,’’ Streak said.
From Scotland, Zimbabwe will proceed to Netherlands for three 50 over fixtures and then Sri Lank for five ODIs and one Test. The first two ODIs against Sri Lanka are in Galle, on 30 June and 2 July. Hambantota is the venue for the last three ODIs which are on 6, 8 and 10 July with the only Test in Colombo from 14 to 18 July.
Zimbabwe ODI squad for Scotland, Netherlands and Sri Lanka: Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza, Tendai Chatara, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Peter Moor, Christopher Mpofu, Tarisai Musakanda, Richard Ngarava, Donald Tiripano, Malcolm Waller, Sean Williams — @Mdawini_29
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