ZIMBABWE men’s national cricket team flew out to the United Arab Emirates for two tests and 3 T20s against Afghanistan without the services of injured experienced star batsman Brendan Taylor.
Taylor who has played 31 test matches and scored 6 hundreds is the most experienced player for Zimbabwe.
His absence is a big blow to Zimbabwe as he is also a good player of spin bowling which will be key in this test series.
The Chevrons are also missing the services of Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis, Tendai Chatara and Peter Joseph Moore, all due to injury.
This has presented an opportunity for a return to the Test fold for Tarisai Musakanda who has been in red hot form having scored two hundreds in the Northern versus Southerns inter-squad four day games.
Musakanda whose sole test to date came against Sri Lanka is expected to bat at three where Ervine normally bats.
Zimbabwe’s most exciting talent in recent years, Wesley Madhevere, is also set to make his test debut and strengthen the middle order.
Madhevere has been consistently on the top half of the batting charts in the Logan Cup and the just ended series of inter-squad four day warm ups.
This will cap off an interesting one year for former Under-19 captain which has seen him make his debut in white ball cricket and announce himself on the big stage with gutsy performances that have captured the imagination of neutrals and honest critics.
On the bowling front Blessing Muzarabani will look to use the experience he gained in county cricket and spearhead Zimbabwe’s bowling attack.
Muzarabani made his Test debut against South Africa in the historical four-day pink ball Test on Boxing Day in 2017 and went wicketless. He put his career on hold in 2018 by joining Northamptonshire on the Kolpak deal after just playing only that test.
The 24 year old came back a different bowler and winning the ODI bowling performance of 2020 for his five wickets against Pakistan and helping his country to win the match in the Super Over.
Another bowler the selectors have put faith in is leg spinner Brandon Mavuta whose career had nosedived after a promising start in which he even helped Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh in their backyard in a test match in 2018.
The squad is a mixture of youth and experience. Regis Chakabva the wicketkeeper-batsman is the most experienced in the squad with 17 test caps, followed by Sikandar Raza with 15 and the captain Sean Williams with 12 caps.
Taylor speaking to Entersport recently said he wanted to see a squad like this one with the youngsters being exposed to games against Afghanistan.
“I feel we have a nice balance between some experienced players and some youngsters coming through like Wesley Madhevere, Milton Shumba and Ryan Burl. There are some good young players and we need to focus on them. They are going to be playing Afghanistan a lot more and have to find a way to turn them over,” said Taylor.
Going with Taylor thinking, this is a chance for Zimbabwe to send a message to Afghanistan the visitors don’t only want to win the test series but want the youngsters in the tour party to start dominating in the Test arena against the Asians.
Afghanistan have played four tests against India, West Indies, Ireland and Bangladesh. They have lost two and have managed to beat Ireland and Bangladesh.
