Kent boss heaps praise on Muyeye
KENT County Cricket Club head coach, Matthew Jonathan Walker has heaped praises on Zimbabwean-born England-based youngster Tawanda Muyeye after his impressive first-class debut season for the English County side.
Walker described the 22-year-old Harare born batter as one of the shining stars from the previous season and has tipped him to succeed and continue making progress on the big stage.
The left hander, joined Kent after being named the 2020 Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year where he was scoring runs for fun in the schools calendar.
He joined an elite group of cricketers such as Jonny Bairstow, James Taylor and Jos Buttler who have all won the prestigious award.
Walker said Muyeye was recommended to him by a former teammate and his performance with the bat in Kent’s second team awarded him the chance to play in the senior team, where he has shown what he is capable of.
“The emergence of Tawanda has been a real highlight for me. He has had a taste of it since he joined the club and sometimes, a little bit by default, he has played because of injury or what have you. We obviously know the talent he has. That’s why we signed him.
“A player that I played with here — and who also played for Nottinghamshire — Rob Ferley, at Eastbourne College, rang me up and said ‘You really need to look at this kid’. We got him here and really wanted to sign him. Nottinghamshire were interested, as were Sussex, but Tawanda decided to come to us,” said Walker in an interview with Kent Online.
He added: “It didn’t really work out for him in the first couple of years. For some, that might have been a surprise — not necessarily for me. It’s taken a bit longer. But he started in the second team and scored four centuries and started to understand his game more.
“He earned the right to get in the side through his runs in the second team and, when he did come into the side, he was ready.”
In July last year, Muyeye was picked by the Oval Invincibles for his maiden appearance in The Hundred where he joined his Kent teammates, Sam Billings and Jordan Cox at the Oval for the hundred-ball tournament.
He has a T20 strike rate of 136, 29 and three half centuries under his belt and Walker tipped him to shine in the shorter version of the game.
“To see him at the top of the order and developing — he is still raw and still learning how to bat in different situations — but he has shown some real class, especially in the T20s. He is a really exciting player. Tawanda was picked up in The Hundred on the basis of what he did in the T20s.
“He has been great,” he said.
The Harare-born youngster is one of the exciting talents in the world at the moment and is likely to turn out for England after reports that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will push to have him play for them soon.
According to the Daily Mail, Muyeye has been identified as one for the future. He is believed to be one of the players who best fits in England’s Test side.