Zimbabwe national cricket team captain Brendan Taylor has demanded an improved performance from his team when they take on touring New Zealand in the first of the two-match Econet Twenty20 (T20) series at Harare Sports Club tomorrow.
Zimbabwe lost all their matches against Pakistan and will be looking to bounce back and claim something against Ross Taylor’s men. Zimbabwe’s Taylor was speaking at a pre-match Press conference yesterday.
“We had some disappointing performances against Pakistan, but we have put all that behind us now and we are looking forward to doing well in this tour,” said Brendan.
“The guys know that they didn’t do well against Pakistan and I will expect some improvement in performance.”
Taylor said despite losing all their matches against Pakistan they have not been deterred and will go in this series with their heads up and with a lot of confidence.
In the other camp, his counterpart and namesake, Ross Taylor, said that his team was looking to sweep everything.
“We are here to win and we want to win every game that we play. We know it will be competitive, but we should be able to achieve our objective,” said Ross.
“Zimbabwe played some good cricket against Bangladesh and Pakistan, but we know what we have to do and we are confident.”
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Zimbabwe will be seeking an improved batting performance in particular where Brendan Taylor is expected to lead from the front.
In the squad too is in-form Forster Mutizwa who has been getting the runs on the domestic scene.
Mutizwa may be asked to open the batting with Vusi Sibanda while Hamilton Masakadza is expected to retain his number three spot with Taylor coming in at four.
Zimbabwe’s seam bowlers were quite successful at Harare Sports Club in the last two tours and they will be looking to retain that form with Chris Mpofu leading the line.
Kyle Jarvis has played well of late, but comes up against some of the top batsmen in the opponents’ line-up with the likes of Brendan McCullum usually ruthless in this format of the game.
All-rounder Elton Chigumbura has been good with the ball, but will be looking at more success with the bat where runs have eluded him in the national team.
Middle-order batter Charles Coventry finds himself under the spotlight once again having done well against Pakistan with the responsibility of making sure the team sets up a big score — if they were to bat first — or to chase down totals, something that suits his style well.
