secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 11:13 am
This is the way he has always played. He's a much cleaner hitter of the ball than either of those though. I reckon Zhuwao in particular was just hit-and-hope-for-the-best. K-long actually used to be a nice batsmen but seems to have become Zhuwao in recent times. Marumani is much much better technically and as we saw in the U19's, he hits a big ball but has a plan and can build an innings and partnerships. His swagger and confidence is his strong point. He was an 11-year old playing with 14, 15, 16 year olds and going out there hitting sixes and fronting up to them completely unfazed and he's always been the same. It's a swagger and a confidence that almost no Zimbabweans ever have in cricket.
He's had a difficult start to his international career but I think 2 good innings already. He dominated the domestic T20 in his first ever season.
We will just have to agree to disagree for now. From what I watched a few weeks ago, I didn't see any of what you wrote. I've been wrong about players before, so I could be wrong again. But for now I'm sticking to my assessment on Marumani. Time of course will tell.
It is, unfortunately, completely absurd and unfair to compare any Zimbabwean boy to any boy coming through basically any other professional cricketing system, and I think you need to slightly lower the standards you are judging guys on.
I agree...but my repeated comparisons to Myers and Madhevere should thus be valid. They are from the same U-19 batch, and if not, they all made their international debuts within weeks or months of each other so almost everything is equal.
I was highly skeptical of all the new players - Myers, Madhevere, Shumba, Marumani - for the exact reasons you mentioned. Zimbabwe's lack of infrastructure plus their standing at the U-19 level led me to believe that this batch was no different from all the others. But Wesley and Myers have so far proven me wrong. Again, its still early in their careers and they could eventually turn out to be poor players and prove my initial assumption correct. All results are possible, as they say.
But when I first saw Madhevere, I was impressed. He did quite well notching up a couple of fifties in his debut series at such a young age. His one flaw is that he plays the ball in the air too much (perhaps too much bottom hand or maybe he plays the shot a bit too early), thus he offers too many chances to consistently score big runs. But he is far better than any current ZIM batter apart from the Big 4.
Myers is even more talented IMO. He's more organized, more technically sound, plays shots all around the wicket, and has swagger. Wesley has played confidently so far, but still looks a bit timid. It might be his physical build since most Bangladesh players also look timid and they are all thin and scrawny. Anyways, Myers looks like he's in boss mode when he's at the crease...his major issue is he throws his wicket away once in the 30s. So its just shot selection for him.
Shumba, admittedly I haven't see a lot of, so perhaps I shouldn't comment. I'll have to change my assessment to "to be determined".
But Marumani to me seems way more limited than Myers and Madhevere. It seems even his boundaries come from either luck, a wild swing, or a ball bowled in pretty much his only strike zone. I don't think I saw him drive the ball through the covers once in his debut series or even attempt to. I could be wrong.
Neither Marumani, nor Wes, nor Myers, nor Shumba, are going to go on to dominate world cricket like any of the players you mentioned in previous posts for a whole range of reasons. They all, however, have the potential to replace the current 'Big 4' and sustain cricket in Zimbabwe and hopefully qualify us for world cups and get the odd good result. Expecting anything more - like averages over 50 - is just not ever going to happen in this current Zimbabwe setup.
Myers & Wes will be all the all-format stalwarts. Shumba will be a quality Test player. Marumani will be a boss T20 player.
Thats fair.
The Big 4 may not have too many feathers in their caps - one Test win vs Pakistan, a couple more vs Bangladesh an ODI series win in Sri Lanka, and T20 world cup win vs Australia being the highlights for me. But in ODIs, Taylor and Williams are now low 40s average batters (since 2015, not necessarily their career averages, but this is now the benchmark of the modern era). With Raza and Ervine being guys who average 30-35. Thats definitely a decent standard for the "Big 4.1" of Myers, Madhevere, Shumba, and Marumani to aspire to.
