Streak hopeful of Bangladesh series
ZIMBABWE cricket coach Heath Streak is hopeful his side will rediscover their form when they get back into action next week in a triangular One Day International series in Bangladesh.
The series will feature the hosts and Sri Lanka.
The Chevrons will face Bangladesh in the first match on January 15, before they take on Sri Lanka two days later.
After playing Sri Lanka again on January 21, Zimbabwe will then have a day’s rest before dating Bangladesh for the second time.
The final is scheduled for January 27.
All the matches will be day-night games and will be played at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka. As the Chevrons prepared to leave Harare today, Streak is hoping his charges can rediscover the kind of form that saw them securing an historic ODI series win over Sri Lanka last July.
It was Zimbabwe’s first major overseas One-day series victory since 2001.
“In terms of our expectations obviously having not played for a bit hopefully we can get into the swing of playing international cricket pretty quickly. And obviously we know we are highly competitive in the One Day format and I hope we can get back to how we played against Sri Lanka pretty quickly.
“It’s been six months since we played ODI cricket, so I am hoping the guys can get back into the form that we ended as quickly as possible.
“Our preparations there haven’t seen many games . . . I would say there haven’t been any cricket matches being played. So we have been in camp just practising, last week and this week, probably we depart tomorrow (today),” said Streak.
Streak will be leading a squad of 15 players for the triangular series that includes regulars — captain Graeme Cremer, Hamilton Masakadza, Brendan Taylor, Sikandar Raza, Craig Ervine, Christopher Mpofu and Kyle Jarvis.
The series is critical to the Chevrons’ build up for the World Cup Qualifiers running from March 2 to 25.
The qualifiers will see 10 countries fighting for the two tickets available for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup to be hosted by England and Wales.
From Bangladesh, Zimbabwe will fly to United Arab Emirates to take on Afghanistan in five ODIs and twoTwenty20 Internationals before they return home for the World Cup qualifier warm-up matches at the end of February.
“Obviously that’s really crucial because it gives you also an opportunity to play a lot of games. There is four or five games in Bangladesh and then seven games in UAE against Afghanistan. It gives the guys 12 or 13 games leading into the World Cup (qualifier) which is really good . . . So we are looking forward to it and hopefully we can get back on track,” said Streak.
The Chevrons were set to leave for Bangladesh yesterday but their departure was delayed because of flight connection problems and they are now likely to fly out this evening.
Zimbabwe Cricket spokesperson Darlington Majonga said they had challenges with connecting flights from Dubai.
Zimbabwe Squad: Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Craig Ervine, Brendan Taylor, Sikandar Raza, Peter Moor, Malcolm Waller, Graeme Cremer (captain), Ryan Murray, Tendai Chisoro, Brandon Mavuta, Blessing Muzarabani, Christopher Mpofu, Tendai Chatara, Kyle Jarvis.