New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has dismissed any suggestion Zimbabwe will be easy opponents ahead of the Black Caps’ upcoming tour which commences next Saturday with the first of two Twenty20 matches at Harare Sports Club.
The Black Caps are expected to jet into the country on Wednesday and Taylor believes Zimbabwe’s competitiveness recently against Pakistan last month and earlier against Bangladesh showed that they should be taken seriously.
The last time New Zealand were here they bowled out the hosts twice in a day and the series ended in utter farce leading Zimbabwe to “voluntarily” withdraw from Test cricket soon after.
Six years on and finally readmitted to the Test arena, the Zimbabweans have been tasked with starting again and so far the signs have been encouraging.
A convincing win over Bangladesh in their comeback Test was followed by a loss to Pakistan in which they pushed the visitors all the way before letting themselves down in the second innings.
Zimbabwe will just fancy their chances, especially in the shorter forms of the game, against a New Zealand touring party.
New Zealand schedule in Zimbabwe: October 15: First T20, Harare October 17: Second T20, Harare October 20: First ODI, Harare October 22: Second ODI, Harare October 25: Third ODI, Bulawayo October 28-29: Warm-up game v Zim babwe XI, Bulawayo November 1-5: Only Test, Bulawayo
