The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER a shared Test cricket series, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan move to the shortest format of the game when the two teams clash in a three-match Twenty20 International contest, whose opener is at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
Afghanistan have been the better team when it comes to the shortest format of the game and because of this, they head into this three-match series as the favourites. In nine previous T20I meetings between the two teams, Zimbabwe have been on the winning side just once, when they beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in Bangladesh in September 2019.
What makes it even worse for Zimbabwe is that they lost all the five T20Is they played in 2020, two against Bangladesh and three to Pakistan.
Zimbabwe are also not going to the International Cricket Council Twenty20 World Cup in India later on this year after missing out on the qualifiers in 2019 when the country’s membership was frozen.
Afghanistan will be without some of their key players in this format of the game and this gives Zimbabwe a perfect opportunity to make the most of the situation.
The biggest threat against Zimbabwe will no doubt be Afghanistan’s leg spinner, Rashid Khan, the number one ranked bowler in T20Is. If they can keep Khan at bay, then Zimbabwe stand a great chance of winning the series.
Sean Williams, Zimbabwe’s substantive Test captain will lead the team in the T20I series on an interim basis as Zimbabwe Cricket are still to appoint a permanent skipper for white ball cricket. One of the talking points ahead of the start of the series is the composition of Zimbabwe’s top order. With the likes of Brendan Taylor, Brian Chari and Chamunorwa Chibhabha, who have opened the batting in the recent past absent from this tour, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, Milton Shumba as well as Tarisai Musakanda are some of the names being played around for the top order.
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