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The national team bowling coach said the big defeats in the recent tour to West Indies will weigh down heavily on the side’s morale as they prepare to host Bangladesh in their next assignment in a few weeks.
Zimbabwe are expected back home tomorrow with a lot of questions hanging unanswered following a frustrating outing in the Caribbean where they lost every game they played.
Last Friday’s crushing innings and 65 run defeat, of a Test that ended inside three days just like they lopsided first encounter, meant that the Zimbabweans were whitewashed across all formats as they had also lost the T20 series 2-0 and the ODIs 3-0.
However, Streak, who could not travel with the team because of financial constraints, yesterday told the Herald that they would need to go back to the drawing board as they have only two weeks to repair the badly damaged team spirit.
Zimbabwe are scheduled to host Bangladesh in a two-match Test series in Harare in mid-April before heading to Bulawayo for three ODIs and two T20s.
“I am sure these guys will be very disappointed with our international form because they didn’t compete close enough with the West Indies as they had hoped,” said Streak.
“Obviously, their confidence will be down from that tour and they would need to pick themselves up quickly before we face Bangladesh.
“It will be difficult, though, and I don’t think we should be completely over it in a few days, especially after such a huge defeat.
“It’s a matter of mental challenge now. They know they can do it because they have done it before. We played Bangladesh recently and won so we should try as much as possible to draw positives from that,” Streak said.
Zimbabwe, long viewed with suspicion as lightweights on the Test arena, had gone to the West Indies in the hope of proving to the world that they can compete with top opposition.
But their performance was far from convincing as they failed to win a single match in the seven games they played.
The batting was disappointing, to say the least, and skipper Brendan Taylor never provided the leadership that was needed with his bat as he failed miserably.
The Zimbabweans had a particularly difficult time facing Shane Shillingford, on wickets tailor-made to suit him, who finished with 19 wickets in the two-match Test Series.
Streak said lack of experience on the international stage could also come to play as Zimbabwe have been inactive against top opposition since the beginning of last year, when they toured New Zealand.
Zimbabwe had not played a Test match in over a year and the last time they were on the international stage was during the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka last September.
“Shillingford has a way of turning the ball and he did that quite well in spin-friendly conditions. That’s where the importance of playing lots of international cricket comes in,” said Streak,
“We have the ability but the challenge is to get more competitive games so that we keep improving. In terms of practice and game time, we had done what we could with lots of cricket in the domestic competitions but it was going to be hard for the boys in West Indies after such a long time away from the international stage,” said Streak.
Zimbabwe pace bowler Kyle Jarvis provided a glimmer of hope with seven wickets to his name in the Test series, which was the third highest behind Shillingford and Marlon Samuels who had 10.
But, more importantly, Zimbabwe will have to go back to their development programme to ensure results for the future as they recently received a boost from the International Cricket Council aimed at improving the game.
Zimbabwe Cricket were awarded US$1.5 million by the ICC over the next three years under its Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme and the money will be used to support an expanded schedule of ‘A’ team cricket and identify and support future international players.
Online Reporter