The Sunday News
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
AMID concerns on whether Zimbabwe senior men’s national T20 cricket team captain will be available for the team’s tour of Bangladesh early next month, Sikandar Raza has confirmed his availability.
The star all-rounder is in India where he is playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Punjab Kings. Zimbabwe are scheduled to tour Bangladesh for a five match T20 series starting on 3 May.
In an interview with online publication 3-mob, Raza confirmed that he will drop anything for national duty and will be there when the Chevrons face off against the Tigers.
In an earlier interview with Cricwick, the 37-year-old all-rounder said he made a commitment to Zimbabwe Cricket that he will always be there regardless of the league he will be playing in at that particular time.
“Am leaving IPL (for the Bangladesh series).
“I promised Zimbabwe Cricket that I’ll not miss a white-ball game for my country, no matter which league I have to leave for it. If Zimbabwe tells me now that we have a series after three days, and the opponent is even Nigeria, I don’t care. If Zimbabwe has picked me, I will leave PSL. If a series comes during IPL, I’ll leave the IPL. GT20, CPL, ILT20, no matter which league it is,” said Raza.
Meanwhile, the Chevrons have concluded their week long training camp in Bulawayo where they were having intra-squad matches at Queens Sports Club.
The programme started on Monday and came to an end on Friday with the interim head coach, Stuart Matsikenyeri saying all is in place for the upcoming tour.
He said they chose to practice at Queens Sports Club as it resembles what they are most likely to find in Bangladesh.
“We got together as a group on Monday but the guys have been training in their different centres prior to that. The guys have been putting in some really good work and this week is about cleaning up and polishing up as much as we can so as cricket goes, some of them are looking really good.
“With our programme, we are playing three matches which is a good thing for us. We chose Queens because it replicates what we will most likely face in Bangladesh so this was the correct venue to come for that and it’s been going okay so far,” said Matsikenyeri.
He added that they have been putting in a lot of work to have solid opening partnerships, something which the team has been struggling with in the past.
“For a while now we have been trying to sort out our top order batting. If we can get some strong starts for our middle order to really come out and express themselves we will find ourselves in strong positions, so we have been trying to work on that and it’s going on okay in spaces but obviously we have some work to do on it,” he said.
Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are scheduled to play five T20Is which the Tigers will be using as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup that will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
The series is set to commence at the beginning of May and the first three T20Is, from May 3, will be played in Chattogram, while the last two matches will be held in Dhaka.
The team has headed back to Harare where they will have a couple of sessions under lights as means to also prepare for the night games they will play in Bangladesh.
The gaffer believes a tough task lies ahead for his charges but has faith that they have what it takes to compete and come out with good results.
“Pressure is where we live, there’s always pressure but our job is to embrace it and make the most of it.
Going into Bangladesh now, there are always points to play for which is quite important. Their rank is quite high so some victories will be very valuable for us.
“When we get to Harare, hopefully we will get a couple of night practices because we are scheduled to play three night games there and we are off on Saturday,” said Matsikenyeri.
The last time the two teams played against each other in a bilateral T20I series was in July of 2022 in Harare, and the Chevrons won the three-match series 2-1.
Zimbabwe Tour of Bangladesh fixtures
First T20I: May 3, Second T20I: May 5, Third T20I: May 7,( First Three will be played in Chattogram)
Fourth T20I: May 10, Fifth T20I: May 12, (Final Two games will be played in Dhaka). ― @brandon_malvin
