Friday marks the beginning of a T20 season that continues on till the end of April 2016 for Bangladesh, so naturally their captain Mashrafe Mortaza wants to find the best team combination looking ahead to the World T20. But his opposite number only has one thing in mind.
“Every international game is important. T20 is a format where everyone can express themselves. We have to execute well and hopefully have one in the bag, especially in the first one,” Elton Chigumbura said.
Zimbabwe’s wait for their first win on their tour to Bangladesh is getting longer and longer and is making Chigumbura more morose with every passing press briefing. But men like Tinashe Panyangara and Graeme Cremer should give him reason enough to feel encouraged.
Panyangara bowled excellent first spells in all three ODIs and although he only has taken five wickets, he was easily the best Zimbabwean bowler on show. He is also showing improvement in his death-bowling skills, bowling good yorkers and helping Chigumbura squeeze the runs down. Cremer, meanwhile, has been doing well in the middle overs without much reward as well.
“I thought Tinashe Panyangara and [Graeme] Cremer bowled well over the three games,” Chigumbura said. “[Taurai] Muzarabani, besides the first game, came back well. Luke Jongwe can bowl better than what he did in the ODI series. It wasn’t bad as well. Obviously when you are playing in that kind of a wicket, I thought they did reasonably well.
“Panyangara is our main bowler. He is a guy who shares his experience with the youngsters. I am sure they are learning from him. Hopefully they can be close to his level soon for the betterment of the team.”
It’s the batting that has worried Zimbabwe. Bangladesh, meanwhile, have had a cruise. They’ve even managed to win without Shakib Al Hasan, who is on paternity leave. The two T20s against Zimbabwe will be another chance to find out how they can cope without their best allrounder.
“Our first target would be to find our best combination,” Mashrafe said. “We wouldn’t’ have many chances later on to do so. Winning is important, but not as much as finding our combination. If we had Shakib around, we could have played Sabbir up the order but nowadays you need a good hitter at No. 6, who can win you games when you need 40 off 20 or 30 balls. We have asked all 14 players to be prepared for a place in the XI.”
Chigumbura too has the World T20 in his mind, but his last word was the win and a way to resurrect their tour.
“It is another way of finding our best combination going forward to the World T20. Every guy in the team wants to perform and make sure that they will be in the World T20 squad. Obviously this series is important for us, at the same time to try and bounce back in this tour.”
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