Openers in India?

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Zimbabwe President's XI: Prosper Utseya (capt), Hamilton Masakadza (v-capt), Foster Mutizwa (wk), Stuart Matsikenyeri, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Malcolm Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Keith Dabengwa, Regis Chakabva (wk), Graeme Cremer, Raymond Price, Tawanda Mupariwa, Edward Rainsford, Christopher Mpofu

Presumably Masakadza will fill one spot. The other is between Chibhabha and Chakabva I reckon...
I'm more inclined to go with Masakadza/Chakabva because history shows Chibhabha plays his best cricket at #3 (averaging nearly 30). We are quite lucky really; Williams, Taibu and Chibhabha were all genuine number 3's. It's just a shame we've lost 2 of them.

Just quickly, I think this lineup looks pretty good: Masakadza, Chakabva, Chibhabha, Matsikenyeri, Utseya, Chigumbura, Cremer, Mutizwa, Price, Mupariwa, Rainsford --- pretty strong from all perspectives (3 spinners, 3 seamers + a lot of batting), with Utseya playing in the middle order and Cremer batting at 7 it gives us batting right down to Mutizwa (and arguably Price). I really like the idea of Mutizwa at number 8, he showed he can play very aggressively towards the end of the innings. It gives us a second bite at the cherry in case we don't have any fireworks from Boom Boom Chigumbura.

[zimfan1]

i reckon it will be matskienyeri with madakasza with chibbaha at 3 then they can have waller at 4 chigumbura 5 and utseya at 6

[aydee]

Team looks light in the batting department to me. There is some depth, but I'm not convinced about the quality...

[Detective RDS]

I have a feeling that Justice Chibhabha will be given the chance of open the innings.Zimbabwe will need some fireworks in Powerplay 1.So,I think they will go with Masakadza-Chibhabha opening pair.I think,Chibhabha opened the innings in Faithwear series and his 121* came also as an opener.

Matsikenyeri has been at no 3 for a good period of time.I think Waller will be at 4,
Chigumbura at 5,Dabengwa at 6,Utseya at 7 and Mutizwa at 8.

So,the team will look like this:

Masakadza,Chibhabha,Matsikenyeri,Waller,Chigumbura,Dabengwa,Utseya,
Mutizwa(WK),Cremer,Price,Rainsford.

Zimbabwe must have to depend mostly on spinners.Rainsford and Chigumbura to
open the bowling.Then all spin attack Price,Cremer,Utseya.Back up spinners Dabengwa,Masakadza,Waller,Matsikenyeri.I think,the long spin attack will be very
productive in India and it will keep the run rate down of the opposition.Selected
Dabengwa as he was never left out from the team yet in the history!And this time
he had a good Faithwear series 4th in the leading run scorer list averaging 31.On
the contrary Chakabva averaged 12 in 5 matches.Dabengwa went passed him in
this equation.

[zulu]

I think Dabengwa deserves his place in the sqaud he had a decent faithwear series. I rate him highly as a player to me more as a bowler for Zim, when i watched him live on TV on supersport against Bangladesh I actually was impressed with his bowling he flights the ball nicely and gets a bit of turn aswell and caused the bangladeshis a few problems that match. although his batting form for national team has been dismal and that needs to come on...

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I think Dabengwa deserves his place in the sqaud he had a decent faithwear series. I rate him highly as a player to me more as a bowler for Zim, when i watched him live on TV on supersport against Bangladesh I actually was impressed with his bowling he flights the ball nicely and gets a bit of turn aswell and caused the bangladeshis a few problems that match. although his batting form for national team has been dismal and that needs to come on...

It seems that Dabengwa is in the team as that utility player. It was strange, because I think in Bangladesh there was one game he was dropped for and our bowling did look a little light on. Having said that, I hope Cremer makes Dabengwa redundant now. Cremer's bowling is so much more developed and effective and in all honesty probably provides a bit more with the bat as well.

On face value, Dabengwa provides some useful left arm spin against poor batting lineups. History shows that he gets hammered by any half decent batsmen - remove Bangladesh and the associates and his bowling average sky rockets from 38 to 125. His batting is ordinary at best and he can't be relied upon to make any scores of note; his best performances have come when he has walked to the crease with only a few overs to go and he is given the chance to slog.

At the moment he's probably held on to his place because there is nobody there to replace him. But with a couple of other "batsmen that can bowl a bit" in M Waller, Vermeulen and even Takarusenga starting to apply pressure on him that might not be the case in the future.