Test XI - Windies series

[TapsC2]

Interestingly enough they did play Solomon Mire in that test in Sri Lanka. Its probably going to be the way of the future. Judging by how Williams has been attacking and how Raza is playing now I think some guys will just go out there and give it a go. Wes is also not a really a defensive minded player. They will probably try go at a run-a-ball

[ZIMDOGGY]

Do you really want to give Ballance his choice of spot when he just flies into the country because things went wrong elsewhere (whatever be the specific circumstances)? The assumption so far has been that he's the indisputable best batter in the country. Maybe he is, but there's a chance he's lower down the pecking order. Williams has been batting at a pretty high level since about 2017 or so...

The risk of over-prioritizing a foreign reject, over the guys who have been sweating it out in ZIM for years does have the possibility of being a bit harsh. It might be a good idea then, to have Ballance open. He's almost surely good enough to make the top 6, but the incumbents at 3-5 have done very well across formats the past several seasons. Key word, several. Harsh to make Ervine open just to accommodate Ballance.

Idk what the right answer here is.

Well said.
I don’t even think it’s rocket science really.
We have a good middle order.
We are crying out for a good opener.
A top order batsman has come available for us.

2+2=4.

At least for now.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Just watching England annihilate their opposition yet again going at 9 an over in a Test.....

...At what point does every other country just completely abandon orthodox test cricket and take on a similar approach?

The difference being of course that their players are of an incredible quality whilst most of ours aren't.

But do we think okay, maybe we should throw Marumani in to the Test team after all? Maybe we start looking for players with the right personalities and attitudes as much as we do actual skill?

Interesting times, cricket is changing. We are still lagging behind with an aggressive approach even in T20, let alone Test cricket. How do we adapt or try to get ahead of the curve?

If you remember a year or so ago everyone here was either on my side in arguing whether to play attacking cricket in tests or to ‘stonewall’.
At first I felt the forum leant towards the latter, led by Brmtaylor, but I argued that going at the 1.5 an over we were, once we lost wickets and the bowlers adapted, there was no bigger zone in their chase.
I was proven correct and I think forum sentiment shifted after that test.
It was one the where Kasuza and Masvaure opened and it was a blockfest.

Attacking cricket in tests works as the fielders tend to be up close.
Also, when the bowl were get dominated, it rattles the game plans a little and they are forced to adapt and play a bit of an Ofi fielding set up, which then means bats have all the time in the world to accumulate runs, the. When field closes in they can play shots again.

Going at a slower pace means it’s easy to figure out the bats.
‘Ervine will block anything except a wide ball’ etc and game plans can be matched and a hood spinner will get a bobble off the bat eventually with everyone close.
And 5 hours only getting 70 runs can be chased down in 30 mins.

You need to attack and play with a healthy strike rate with the option to clamp up a bit every now and then when needed.

[jaybro]

Horses for courses gentlemen, and unfortunately Zimbabwe doesn't have the thoroughbreds to tackle this 'Baz-Ball' approach.

England has had an explosion of T20 batsman come through in the past 5 or so years, so it has given them the tools to pull off this game plan. The fact they are also suffering a low supply of 'traditional' test batsman also adds weight to the idea to play Baz-Ball.

Ultimately for Zimbabwe their middle order batsman of Williams, Raza, Wes, Burl etc are naturally attacking players, so they will play aggressively regardless. But I wouldn't be sending in opening batsman to try and score at 5.5 an over against the likes of Roach and Holder, there's still much value in the game plan to see off their first two spells before letting the middle order feast on their 3rd, 4th and 5th spells.

[Kriterion_BD]

Yeah I don't know if this run-a-ball "Bazball" approach will work or be employed full time by all teams. I think what we saw in this England appraoch was probably an anomlay and an outlier, not a new trend or era.

In Tests, you can and captains will quickly start plugging holes in the field to cut off boundaries. Now you can argue that with an ODI field, teams will be able to easily score 5 runs per over, in a risk free manner. That may be true, but ODIs have fielding restrictions as well as bowling quotas, Tests do not.

You may not have short leg, silly point, and leg slip in for a spinner...but you will then have short cover, 1 traditional slip, point, mid off, sweeper cover, and third man or deep point and the spinner will bowl a foot and half outside the off stump. And thats just a standard 6-3 offside field. If you want to go 7-2 for extra safety, you can have a long on too. Good luck to anyone trying to score at 5 runs per over with that field.

I think Pakistan just bowled poorly with an inexperienced attack, and also the pitches were flat. Couple that with the fact that they were not expecting England to blitz them like that.

As an aside, how often have we seen Zimbabwe fail to score 5 an over in ODIs in the middle overs? Will be even less likely in a Test match Bazball situation where the bowlers and fielders don't have any of the white ball restrictions.

[Nanctus]

In terms of openers and batsman in general, can anyone remind me what happened to Tarisai Musakanda? He seemed to bat quite well early on and I know a few people thought of Burl-Musakanda as a future opening combo. Clearly Burl has focused on lower order role, but did Musakanda just lose his form?

[Nanctus]

I don't think Ervine should be opening. He has shown many times how valuable his batting is in tests, but his primary weakness is outswing/edging to the slips. It feels like straight up wasting one of our best bats. For this very specific scenario, it seems that either burl or chakabva needs to open because even a 15 off 40 at the top sets up the innings for that very strong middle order, whereas that kind of innings at 7 or 8 is really not as a valuable. Obviously it won't always come off and they might only last a couple of overs, but so might Ervine. Chakabva and Burl are already in the team with a second skillset, but this will amplify the value of what they offer with the bat.

[totoro]

In terms of openers and batsman in general, can anyone remind me what happened to Tarisai Musakanda?

Off field issues, and not scoring runs.

[jaybro]

Interestingly enough they did play Solomon Mire in that test in Sri Lanka. Its probably going to be the way of the future. Judging by how Williams has been attacking and how Raza is playing now I think some guys will just go out there and give it a go. Wes is also not a really a defensive minded player. They will probably try go at a run-a-ball

Sorry need to correct this,

Mire played the two home tests v West Indies and actually did really well in the 1st test taking a wicket bowling first change and also scored some runs.

Regis & Hamilton opened v Sri Lanka in the one off test over there. Neither made many runs from memory nor did Tari batting at 3.

[jaybro]

In terms of openers and batsman in general, can anyone remind me what happened to Tarisai Musakanda? He seemed to bat quite well early on and I know a few people thought of Burl-Musakanda as a future opening combo. Clearly Burl has focused on lower order role, but did Musakanda just lose his form?

IMO that’s the problem with Tari right there (not having a crack at you). I don’t think see Tari as an opener or a top order batsman really. I always felt he’d be better off as a finisher in ODIs and also batting at 6 in tests.

He doesn’t have a perfect technique and seems to play across the line a lot (which isn’t great no matter where you bat). Obviously he seems to find himself in trouble behind the wheel as well which doesn’t help.

Unless he can once again rebuild himself and return to the national side and have some success in his 30s, I’m afraid he’ll likely go down as one of the biggest disappointments in Zimbabwe cricket. L