Bulawayo — Zimbabwe national cricket team skipper, Graeme Cremer feels they haven’t yet settled on their best combination of players and is eager to see them continue to grow.
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Zimbabwe lost the triangular series final on Sunday having qualified in dramatic fashion with a Duckworth-Lewis and Stern win over the West Indies.
Despite just one win and a tie in the series, there have been encouraging performances from individual players in this series and the final was no different, with debutant, Tasirai Musakanda looking good for his 36 and left-arm quick Brian Vitori picking up three wickets.
Coach Heath Streak said: “We hadn’t really put on a big total [previously], so we felt that maybe just changing it up a little bit, and putting up something different to all the innings that Sri Lanka have had might work.
“Musakanda is someone we’ve been holding back, but we just felt it was the right time. They didn’t know much about him, and he showed exactly what he’s got.
“I think he’s got a bright future. I’m very happy with him. And then Vitori, we picked him for exactly what he showed today (Sunday). We felt we needed him. (Dhananjaya) De Silva and (Kusal) Perera have been really damaging up front, and we got them both early, so that paid off.”
Vitori had featured for Zimbabwe A against Pakistan A last month, but missed the Test series against Sri Lanka, as he was fulfilling a club cricket contract in Cape Town.
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Streak added: “He [Vitori] had a contract in Cape Town, and we’d wanted him to stay, but he had to go down and fulfil that.
“But he managed to get back here, despite missing out on the Test series. And he’s been practising and bowling with us here in the nets with the boys, and giving all our batters a hard time, so we felt that maybe he could do that to the opposition.”
Cremer feels that under Streak, the team is moving forward and is confident of an upturn in results soon.
The skipper said: “We’re still trying to find the right combinations.
“Streaky has just come in [as coach]. I haven’t been captain for that long. So we’re trying to find the right II for the conditions we play in, whether we go away or we play here. A lot of positives. We’ve got a lot of young guys coming through.
“Carl Mumba is a bright prospect. Musakanda of course. PJ Moor is still really young in international cricket, and we know he can play at this level. Raza played really well in a few innings. It’s good to see him back in a bit of form.
“Sean Williams showed signs today that he’s starting to get back into it. So we’re quite excited for the couple of months ahead.”
Streak is confident of adding more fixtures to Zimbabwe’s sparse calendar. As it stands, the team’s next assignment will be a tour to Sri Lanka in June next year.
The coach said: “We’ve got some tours that we’re working on, between now and [Sri Lanka].
“We’ll definitely have some cricket between now and the time we go to Sri Lanka next year. Guys have got provincial cricket, and we’ll get together as a national squad where opportunity arises.
“There is a lot of specific stuff that we want to work on and keep improving. I’ve spoken about fielding, but there are all sorts of things that we need to put in place. There will be a lot of cricket early next year.”
