zimcricketforums.com

How many specialist bowlers should Zimbabwe play in the first game upon returning to Test cricket?

For the purpose of this poll, we will look at guys like Lamb and Chigumbura as allrounders and guys like S Masakadza and Cremer as specialist bowlers. So the bowler combinations (ie. what we are voting for in this poll) are when we are looking at specialist bowlers only.

So for instance, if you wanted Chigumbura in the team as a seamer alongside 2 other seamers and 2 spinners - you would vote for "4 bowlers: 2 spinners, 2 seamers" and then vote for Chigumbura when we get to the middle order polls.

This poll requires one to actually know his/her chosen side. In my team both Price (potentially captain) and Cremer (best leggie under 25 in the world according to Zimdoggy or in my view view, this guy is a potential world beater so any test experience he gets is worth it) are the spinners. I'm opting for two seam bowlers because I want a long batting tail - one of those seamers is Mpofu, nuff said. Which basically means that my allrounder has to a be a batting allrounder and with Cremer pitching in with the bat as well, I can extend the batting line up by two. In short, I voted for 2 spinners, 2 seamers.

According to the specified criteria, I voted for 3 bowlers: 2 seamers & 1 spinner. I consider Meth to be an allrounder (albeit work-in-progress) otherwise he would be classified as the third seamer alongside Mpofu & Rainsford making it 3:1. Price will be the sole spinner. Unless injury or extremely favorable conditions & circumstances permit, Cremer will have to sit it out. With our track record of frail batting by Test standards, we simply cannot afford a tail of longer than 3!!! There are sufficient part-time options to make up for any shortfalls - Ewing, Williams, Taylor, Hamilton & Vusi(if Jesse Ryder can bowl why not him).

Just a point to note: In pretty much all our Test matches which involved Price, Zim have gone with 3 seamers and one spinner. On the odd occasion part-timers like Whittall (seamer), Grant, Gripper, Ewing & briefly Matsi (spinners) have chipped in. Alistair & Streak were part of those teams so I strongly believe the same will hold true.