Herald
Brandon Moyo Bulawayo Bureau
ZIMBABWE senior men’s cricket team coach Dave Houghton is anticipating an uphill battle when the Chevrons take on the West Indies in the first Test match at the Queens Sports Club here in Bulawayo from Saturday.
The Chevrons yesterday held their first training session in Bulawayo ahead of their two-Test series against the West Indies.
Coming off a white-ball series against Ireland in Harare, nine players, who featured in that contest against the Irish, are expected to be part of the Test squad along with the six players who played in Zimbabwe’s recent warm-up match XI and Windies. which ended in a draw at Bulawayo Athletic Club on Monday.
Houghton said they expect a tough challenge from the Windies given the lack of experience between the two sides. However, Houghton is optimistic that they will give it their all on the pitch to compete.
“These games are very difficult games for us, we are playing against a very capable opponent and the gap in expertise and experience is huge, but that doesn’t mean we go in without any confidence, we have our tactics, we have the way we want to play against them, we’re playing at home and I expect us to be out there going ball-for-ball against them throughout this Test series,” Houghton said.
Since taking over as Zimbabwe head coach midway through last year, this will be Houghton’s first Test assignment having played white-ball cricket and he believes it will present a real opportunity to ‘faced individually against the opposition.
Among the players present during Zimbabwe’s first training session at Queens Sports Club yesterday were Chamunorwa Chibhabha, fast bowler Bradley Evans, leg-spinner Brandon Mavuta and batsman Tafadzwa Tsiga.
Zimbabwe and West Indies are preparing to face off in the extended version of the game for the first time since 2017 at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, with the first five-day contest taking place from February 4-8. The second match is scheduled for February 12-16 at the same venue.
Zimbabwe have never triumphed in this format of the game against the Windies, with the two teams having played each other 10 times since 2000. The closest Zimbabwe came to beating the Windies was in the first ever cricket clash between the two Test in March 2000.
The match took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Zimbabwe were set a target of just 99 runs to win the match and a line-up featuring the likes of Andy Flower, Neil Johnson, Murray Goodwin and Alistair Campbell was bowled out for 63 runs in 47 overs to give the Windies a 35-run win.
Houghton says he hopes to see a big crowd come out to support the Chevrons.
“It would be great to see the crowds come out in numbers and I hope we entertain them,” he said.
Zimbabwe go into battle without the services of Test captain Sean Williams, who is out with a finger injury. All-rounders Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl will also miss the red-ball series as they were allowed to travel abroad to play franchise Twenty20 cricket and the experience of Craig Ervine and Gary Ballance will come in handy.
