You stand a better chance of asking me not to question the exclusion of Ewing&Rainsford, not to mention quit backing them all!The Saint wrote:Why do Zimbabwe persist with these bloated squads?
This is a huge problem that the selectors have! It's almost as if they are lazy to apply their minds and stand by their decisions. Insecurity hampers the preparations of players! You can't afford to take too many guys on tour, so a lot of the decisions have been made obvious to them already.
1. The Test venue requires one spinner, Price is a definite, so Utseya, who has neither had a chance to either fail or succeed, becomes a no brainer. Cremer lacks match fitness, so he's potentially a liability, not to mention him as a third spinner - in unsuitable conditions - keeping out a seamer or batsmen which would be a better option!
2. Taylor's been doing well as an opener in ODIs&T20s, so Chamu is no longer required!
3. It was hard enough to choose between Waller&Forster. Forster's been doing well in domestic cricket, so considering that he can also keep, and he's done just as good/bad as Waller so far in ODIs, Chakabva should make way. Taylor remains an option.
4. Mpofu's injury would've created an opening, but it seems he's now available. His a starter for the Test XI, so with Elton a definite in my view, Jarvis&Vitori complete the list. Meth who should exploit the conditions better, gets the nod as a replacement, ahead of Njabulo who should miss out.
5. For all my appreciation of Matsi, unless a squad of 16 will travel, I feel he should make way for Shingi. It would be grossly unfair if Forster takes the fall instead. With Mpofu & Vitori coming from injury, while Jarvis hasn't completely recovered from his back injury, we will need a natural strike bowler who is used to taking the new ball in all formats, as extra backup! That's why I excluded Shingi from no.4 above. Mutizwa will have to step up.
Chakabva, Matsi, Ncube, Cremer & Chibhabha SHOULD miss out. My views are based on this exact squad of 20. I would've taken a totally different 15!
NB: eugene, I think there's room for just one extra batsman, an extra spinner, plus two seamers. There's no way Craig can get picked ahead of Mutizwa, so talk of quotas etc is silly. With all due respect, Matsi&Ewing deserve a call-up ahead of Craig. He simply hasn't done enough!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS GUYS!!!!!!!!1
