Bangladesh 20/20s

[Pat_Bee]

Faraz brings ‘something’ to the table…

Faraz is the man not quite the calibre of Larry, but then again who is?!

[Donald]

People are knocking Gumbie but he actually did very well in the recently completed national tournament. Scored 44 against Durham and 77 against someone else. Decent strike rate. He is not an AB devilliers but he has worked hard to be a multi format player

[Kriterion_BD]

Looks a pretty standard full strength ZIM side. No major injury concerns - which is cause enough to celebrate given how often Ervine and Williams are hurt. And not too many passengers in the side either, since Jongwe actually won a game for ZIM recently.

[Googly]

Ya Overlord continues to be underrated by many.
He's a fast learner. I've actually not seen any Zim player show such obvious improvement over the years. Plus he's a good keeper. I know they bat in different spots, but for me he starts before Madande every time as keeper batsman. I think I'm the only guy here who doesnt wax lyrical about Clive, dont get me wrong, he's a good player, but Ode to Joy is better in all formats. He has been Mr Reliable in getting us off to solid starts, which are imperative for us.

Faraz also puts in some decent performances. He can't clear the rope like Jongwe though, but hes not a bad batsman. He's only useful when it's swinging for him. The slower pace often is very useful in T20 as we know. I'm not sure why he's there though, decent enuf, but not international calibre for me. You'd have to think the Evans Jongwe battle will continue if Evans picks up where he left off. Well hopefully he comes back better than he was.

You can't claim Muzondo and Musekiwa have been hard done by I don't think. That Africa games stuff where they did well was not a good standard.

Where does Campbell fit in? He either replaces Burl, Jongwe, Bennett or Masakadza.

My first lineup would tentatively be
Gumbie
Ervine
Bennett
Williams
Raza
Marumani
Burl
Jongwe/Madande
Ndlovu
Muzarabani
Ngarava

2 seamers. 5 spinners, I'd definitely give Bennett a couple.
Jongwe makes it as a batsman, bowled only in desperation.

[Donald]

Mustafizur misses the first game and possibly second. Shkib only coming in for last two games.

Ideal time to put one over on the Bangladeshis. Probably strongest side we could have picked. I guess win at least two and that is automatic qualification for 2026 which is also thinking behind meritocratic selections.

[Kriterion_BD]

Fizz is past his prime I’m afraid. He’s outside the top 5 seamers in Bangladesh now. Selectors will still pick him as an automatic pick however. He’s the Bangladeshi Chatara I guess.

Shakib too is overrated in T20s. Solid bowler but mediocre batter. But I guess all the BD players are pretty average in T20s.

[55727835]

Ya Overlord continues to be underrated by many.
He's a fast learner. I've actually not seen any Zim player show such obvious improvement over the years. Plus he's a good keeper. I know they bat in different spots, but for me he starts before Madande every time as keeper batsman. I think I'm the only guy here who doesnt wax lyrical about Clive, dont get me wrong, he's a good player, but Ode to Joy is better in all formats. He has been Mr Reliable in getting us off to solid starts, which are imperative for us.

Can we seriously argue that Gumbie is a better prospect for T20 cricket than Madande? Clive has looked beautiful the last few games, showed leadership in the Africa Games and is constantly improving. Gumbie is arguably one of our best options for test cricket, I'd love to see him in the Ireland squad.

If Clive wasn't keeping would you still select him as a bat?

[Googly]

No I wouldn't. I'm a big fan of Overlord's. Maybe as a replacement for Bennett up the order, but down the order I think Jongwe is actually a better hitter than Clive and I'd also persevere with Marumani. He keeps getting selected, but for once I agree. He's got freakish hand eye. They're hoping one day it all comes together at international level for him, but he's had a long rope.
Clive may or may not have shown leadership skills in Ghana. Someone started that rumour.
He did nothing obviously good or bad that I could see.

There's not much in it. We've got some good players. It's whoever learns how to cope with international pressure.

[secretzimbo]

You’re pretty harsh on Clive. I agree that I don’t think he’s the most technically or naturally gifted player we have but he’s done well. In fact he’s done better than most of our other young players at this level, including guys who clearly have more talent like Shumba and Marumani. As you say it’s about who can step up , and he’s done it fairly well.

He was a good captain in Ghana. Admittedly it was pretty easy with that opposition, but still he scored plenty of runs, I quite enjoyed the fielding positions and bowling changes in most matches and the group seemed to be enjoying themselves, and they won. Yes easy opposition but couldn’t really ask more for a ‘leader’.


Im a fan of Gumbie as well - he’s great, I think he and Kaia should have a long run together opening in ODI and Tests over the next 18 months.

But in T20s? You are saying you want Gumbie AND Ervine to open and for me that’s probably a disaster. I don’t think a single other Top 20 team would swap their opening pair for both Gumbie and Ervine together.
We can potentially have one of them but to open with two classical anchor players is a disaster waiting to happen.
There is a very real risk of them being 20-0 off the powerplay, at which point they might as well forfeit the game and go for a beer instead,

[55727835]

No I wouldn't. I'm a big fan of Overlord's. Maybe as a replacement for Bennett up the order, but down the order I think Jongwe is actually a better hitter than Clive and I'd also persevere with Marumani. He keeps getting selected, but for once I agree. He's got freakish hand eye. They're hoping one day it all comes together at international level for him, but he's had a long rope.
Clive may or may not have shown leadership skills in Ghana. Someone started that rumour.
He did nothing obviously good or bad that I could see.

There's not much in it. We've got some good players. It's whoever learns how to cope with international pressure.

I don't doubt Marumani has skill, but I see no evidence he's a reliable pick on the international stage. He's consistently gotten out for fuck all. Since 2023 he's had 11 innings, only 3 of those he's gotten more than 6 runs. And those three innings where he built were against Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya- hardly Bangladesh-level opposition?

He's in the trap so many of our young players are- no support to handle the pressures of international cricket.