What does Brendon Taylor need to do to see his team open its account in the ODI series against New Zealand? Even two back to back centuries from the skipper weren’t enough. The African side has reached a point where victory looks miles away. And, their main worry remains an ineffective and listless bowling attack that can neither get wickets nor dry up the runs. Throw in the mix ordinary fielding and you have a side which is just making up numbers at the top level.
Zimbabwe started what was a busy home season with a bang, beating Bangladesh in the re-admission Test as well as the one-day series. Two months down the line, the euphoria that the Bangladesh series started has completely faded away. All the energy and exuberance that kept the team going has just died down, current unit which looks ragged by all counts is just a shadow of the side that did the victory lap in August.
The fact that the series is lost and Zimbabwe aren’t known for glittering performances in dead rubbers, a 3-0 score line is the most likely outcome. In fact, failure to win a single match in last twelve attempts just sums up the story for Zimbabwe.
On the contrary, New Zealand are making merry without even going full throttle. So far in four outings, their top three in the batting line up have done the job without any trouble. Actually, the team management may want to shuffle the pack for this game so that the rest of the batsmen also have a hit in the middle. New Zealand would want to save Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum for the all-important next month’s series against Australia.
New Zealand after a good six month break from international cricket have eased into the stride: batting is in good shape, bowling too doesn’t look bad and as always their fielding is top notch. Moreover, this is an excellent opportunity to blood some of the rookies in the squad.
All in all, Zimbabwe would need more than a century from Taylor to turn the tables or a rank bad performance from Kiwis can help them reduce margin of defeat.
Zimbabwe Squad: Brendan Taylor (C), Chamu Chibhabha, Christopher Mpofu, Elton Chigumbura, Forster Mutizwa (wk), Hamilton Masakadza, Keegan Meth, Kyle Jarvis, Malcolm Waller, Natsai Mushangwe, Prosper Utseya, Ray Price, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Vusimuzi Sibanda.
New Zealand Squad: Ross Taylor (capt), Graeme Aldridge, Doug Bracewell, James Franklin, Martin Guptil, Brendon McCullum (wk), Nathan McCullum, Andy McKay, Kyle Mills, Rob Nicol, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock.
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