Evans ready for Chevrons challenge
JUST five matches into his One Day International (ODI) career, murmurs of Bradley Evans being a possible successor to Sikandar Raza as Zimbabwe senior team cricket’s all-rounder have begun doing the rounds.
Evans has found himself at the tail-end of the batting order, with his main duties in the Chevrons being to lead the bowling attack.
But the 25-year-old greenhorn proved otherwise in the just-ended Zimbabwe ODI series against India during which his performance with both the ball and bat won him a lot of admirers.
Evans pushed Zimbabwe’s runs to 189 in a 70-run, 9th wicket partnership in the first ODI against India before claiming a five-wicket haul in the last three-match series among other decent performances since making his debut against Bangladesh last month.
This has sparked talks of him turning into an all-rounder and being touted as a replacement for Raza when the Chevrons’ Man of the Moment calls time on his career.
And the prospects of becoming an allrounder are something that the seamer is relishing of becoming as he works on his confidence.
“I think it’s been talked about in the media and there’s been mutterings from people here and there. There’s no secret that I can bat, it’s out there now.
“I just need to get more confident in my ability because I believe I have a good cricket brain and, thus, I’m able to construct an innings. Once I develop the confidence in my batting, I’m sure I’ll score more runs and more consistently too,” said Evans.
As he embarks on his international limited overs career, Evans feels the Indian series helped him to settle and ready to face the challenges head-on.
“I for one learnt a lot of lessons. I learnt that although they are superstars, they are as human as me or anyone else.
“Learning that helped me with confidence as we went from game to game,” said Evans.
The Chevrons have had their confidence boosted by some decent and improved performances in the last three months.
It is that confidence they carry with them as they face another cricket giant - Australia - in three ODIs, which rolled into life early this morning.
“Playing teams like that is only going to improve our cricket. It’s a reality check to see how much room there is to improve.
“For me, it’s another opportunity to expose my name to the world and show people what I can do. It’s another challenge, albeit a different one,” Evans said.
And as he hopes to carry his form against Australia, Evans chooses to play down his five-wicket haul against India.
Evans insists he still needs to improve on his game.
“For me, it was quite nice to show everyone a glimpse of what I am capable of but I definitely know where I went wrong and there are certain aspects of my performances that I am annoyed about and will look to improve upon,” he said.
Despite having his career hampered by injuries which delayed his national team debut, Evans is determined to make a difference for the Chevrons.
“Injuries are part of sport. They happen. There is never a good time to get injured.
“You take it in your stride and fix the issue to get back stronger than before.
“My objectives are simple: contribute to winning games of cricket for Zimbabwe for the next 10 plus years,” said Evans.