adminTriangular Series gets underway at the Harare Sports Club this morning.
Zimbabwe are coming into the match under a new captain, Brendan Taylor, who was installed last week, taking over from all-rounder Elton Chigumbura. Taylor said he is looking forward to new challenges as captain and would obviously be looking forward to start on a good note.
The Zimbabwe XI side has a decent batting line-up which includes Tatenda Taibu, Craig Ervine, Vusi Sibanda, Regis Chakabva and Chigumbura who were all part of the team that played at the World Cup this year.
Top order batsman Hamilton Masakadza who missed the World Cup because of a dip in form has since picked himself up and could open the innings with Taylor while Chakabva and Sibanda could be other options to partner the skipper.
Taylor said the team will be aiming to approach the challenges positively against strong Australia and South Africa A sides during the series.
The 25-year old right handed batsman and is also confident that the spin department, which has been Zimbabwe’s strongest link in recent times, will be able to conjure up some its magic, banking on the experience of Ray Price and Prosper Utseya.
“We have some pretty good hard hitting batters. Spinners play an important part for us mostly and I think we have to play a certain amount of aggressive cricket if we want to win and that will always be our approach to the game,” said Taylor.
Coach Alan Butcher is also looking forward to some improvements in the Zimbabwe team, which had six weeks to prepare for the series.
Butcher also said spin will be their major weapon in the one day games although they are also keen to see how far the seamers have gone with their game.
Interestingly Zimbabwe replaced spinners from the World Cup Squad Greg Lamb and Graeme Cremer, who was ruled out by injury, and included exciting pace prospects like Tendai Chatara, Keegan Meth and Southern Rocks’ left arm seamer Brian Vitori, with only Chris Mpofu the most tried fast bowler in the department.
“I am very pleased with the development of the young seamers. Certainly a couple have really come out of the pack and they’ve got the ability.
“You will see more of them in the next month. In our one day cricket we will rely on our spinners, like Brendan (Taylor) said, because they have been our most successful although we do have a couple of injuries in that department at the moment.
“They are probably not the finished article but there are at least half a dozen to look at in our national team,” said Butcher.
Australia will not be easy customers, with many of the players in the A side pushing for slots in the main team ahead of their tour to Sri Lanka in August.
Australia A captain Tim Paine said they are looking forward to some great performances, with the country’s selectors reportedly keeping a keen eye on the series.
“We are expecting to do very well. We’ve picked a younger side. This is the first time ever we have had the Australian ‘A’ team training together for three weeks, so there is certainly no excuse for us being out of season.
“We are here to perform as well as we can. Even though it is a younger side we are looking to have a good tournament,” he said.
Australia A will play their second match tomorrow against South Africa A. The South Africa A skipper Jacques Rudolph said they are not taking the series lightly.
“I think all three squads are very strong. We had a series earlier on in the season against Bangladesh where we possibly felt we outplayed them a little bit but in this competition the Australians are always respectable opponents so are the Zimbabweans,” he said.
“There are quite a lot of guys in our squad who have played international cricket and I think this gives them an opportunity to try and cement their places in the team.
“We have a couple of young batters, exciting batters who we would like to put onto the park. In general for all three teams I think it is going to be strong and competitive cricket and it’s a great opportunity for most of our players,” added Rudolph.
Zim XI Squad
Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor, Hamilton Masakadza, Tatenda Taibu, Craig Ervine, Regis Chakabva, Malcom Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Forster Mutizwa, Prosper Utseya, Keegan Meth, Ray Price, Chris Mpofu, Tendai Chatara, Brian Vitori.
Australia A Squad
Tim Paine (captain), Callum Ferguson, Luke Butterworth, Trent Copeland, John Hastings, Aaron Finch, Nathan Lyon, Nic Maddison, Mitch Marsh, Mitch Starc, Stephen O’Keefe, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mathew Wade, David Warner.
Fixtures
Today
Zimbabwe XI v Australia A (Harare Sports Club) Tomorrow
Australia A v South Africa A (Harare Sports Club) Saturday July 2
Zimbabwe XI v South Africa A (Harare Sports Club) Sunday July 3
Zimbabwe XI v Australia A (Harare Sports Club) Tuesday July 5
Australia A v South Africa A (Harare Sports Club) Wednesday July 6
Zimbabwe XI v South Africa A (Harare Sports Club) Friday July 8
Final (Harare Sports Club)
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