Zimbabwe vs England | Only Test | 22 - 25th May 2025

[Andy31]

Actually Evan’s didn’t bowl on the weekend. So maybe he is not bowling

[zimfan1]

Some talk that Antum Naqvi will be available from November.

[andrea lanzoni]

Thought this was bloody rude

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/ ... 42877.html

The IPL is actually unwatchable now. 2 months of unrealistic slogging and games which mean zilch.
I cringe at some of the comments which come out of these Indian punditry circles. Irfan Pathan came out with a couple of shockers recently, about how teams touring India should be paying them for the privilege. Laughable. This IPL money machine is, however, starting to wane a little bit on the cricketing community. The recent viewership numbers in the UK is down 33% from the last edition, which says a lot in itself. I miss watching test matches in SA.

I agree, I got sick of IPL and just watch a few matches a year.
Too much boom boom slogging cricket: when you get accustomed it becomes boring.
I prefer continuing watching County Championship.
I would like to watch Logan Cup if it were decently televised: watching the pitch only for hours is not appealing

[zimbot]

Apparently its Tinotenda Maphosa

Strange selection considering he barely has any FC experience.

I haven't seen much of him, so I don't know if his selection is justified. Anybody know why he is there ahead of Ernest Masuku, Alex Falao or even Chatara?

[Marshmallow]

According to Frank mawoza, the national team head coach conducted pace bowling trials or something last year. Then he was impressed with Nyamhuri, and that's why they selected him. Maphosa was also part of those trials. Maybe they are backing the players whom they were impressed with?

[Googly]

Some years back they had a comp to try and find the quickest bowler because we've never had anyone really quick and that was identified as the skill that we needed. We never really found anyone who could dial it up. In hindsight it was probably because we only had bowlers spraying it at 120 and they figured they had may as well find guys who could spray it at 140.

If they did have that trial last year they were obviouly looking for pace, swing and seam or any combo of the above and probably a decent action.
Priority for left arm I'm sure. We've got a few guys in this dept but they all clearly lack control.

If it's not being driven home to us how important it is people are not paying any attention whatsover. Our bowlers have really been shown up over the last few games. You have to be 140 to bother these top batters with pace. Blessing causes a major problem with his steep bounce, its pretty unique.
The best example of very medium pace that nobody could ever get away was probably Darren Stevens. The man was a legend. The counties probably have about 6 seamers in each of their squads. That's literally about 100 seamers that are more accurate than ours and thats no exaggeration. Which of our seamers is making a county side other than Blessing? Genuine question!!
They would probably pick a couple based on raw ability but they wouldn't start until they were bowling real quality. Let's not even start on the good Prem club seamers, that's several hundred more. We've got a real problem and who knows how its going to be resolved. How does a bowler become more accurate? I'm guessing by practice?

I stand corrected but we seem to be lacking a good outswing bowler to right handers. We have guys that can swing it both ways, but not particularly accurately.
We have one guy that really bothers batters of even the highest calibre if he's bowling well. Let's be honest, the others have been pretty woeful of late.

Its an absolute priority to find guys that can bowl consistently or we're going to be chasing big totals in these upcoming tests.
I'm prepared to bet that Sammonds and Co have said they need Evans and its been vetoed. What Sammonds wants he doesn't get. If you have selectors vetoing what the national coach wants theyre not acting in the best interests of the team.

[Pat_Bee]

Let's not even start on the good Prem club seamers

Guys like jonty he’d have been causing England all kinds of trouble with his experience of English conditions.

[TapsC2]

To be fair after the England test and watching our pace bowlers plus hearing the commentary from the English guys I think the Zim 'brains trust' might have been on to something with their trials and subsequently leaving some guys out. Sam Cook has been getting roasted for having lost his pace after a couple of spells. They clearly stated that you need guys who are rapid to trouble the good batsmen.

If we look at Chivanga and Nyauchi. They are complete opposites but Chivanga created a lot more danger simply because he is faster. He was spraying it everywhere but the truth at a certain pace all you need is to get it right a few times and you are suddenly in business. He was clearly rusty but I did see at least 1 delivery hit 140. He should have had at least 1 more wicket. Nyauchi for as good as he has been in the past was not effective at the level we were playing.

In the end test cricket is about picking up 20 wickets for the least amount of runs. We are still at the picking up 20 wickets stage. We need faster bowlers. I know Newman and Matigimu are relatively faster than all of the guys we saw besides Blessing(zim players). I also think Trevor is faster than Nyauchi and maybe even Ngarava at this stage. So I kind of get what they are trying to do now.

[Pat_Bee]

I would like to watch Logan Cup if it were decently televised: watching the pitch only for hours is not appealing

It’s a top quality stream. A camera at both ends is the only improvement that needs. Serves its purpose of seeing how a guy bats and bowls.

[TapsC2]

Some talk that Antum Naqvi will be available from November.

Hopefully it's true. He wouldn't have stuck around if it was years away. It has to be close