Tarisai Musakanda in T20Is

[encore]

There is talk of an anchor in T20Is - a batsman that, while not capable of consistent big hitting, is capable of clearing the bounday and rotating the strike. And yet, Zimbabwe have the perfect candidate in Taisai Musakanda, who has not been used enough in T20Is.

He did incredibly well in the Africa T20 competition.
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He was also impressive in the few T20Is that he's played, which were exlcusively against top opposition and bowlers.
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To make matters worse, Tari topped the Tri-Nations tournament ZIM hosted in place of the Domestic Competition in June last year, which involved Kenya, Zimbabwe Chairman's XI and Zimbabwe Select XI.
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I deal in facts, and these are facts. Pictures in this case, because words are sadly proving to be a challenge for some, and minus links because any presence of filters constitutes an argument for the desperate who are clutching at straws.

These are the players to focus on.
T20Is: Taylor, Zhuwao, Kasuza, Musakanda, Elton, Sauramba(wk), Chisoro, Mavuta, Mumba, Chatara, Wellington
(RESERVES: Chari, Kamunhukamwe, Murray(wk), Magarira, Ngarava, Roche, Jongwe). Wait and see on Munyonga and Mashinge. Taylor, Zhuwao, Elton, Chisoro and Chatara will need replacing sooner rather than later, and there's enough in reserve to ensure a smooth transition.

Surely therefore, it should be considered criminal to exclude him from the T20I XI. We're not even talking about the squad, but straight into the XI. It would be crazy to say he was dropped because he failed against South Africa in South Africa. Very few succeed on our pitches. Even then, not even QdK got on top of ZIM bowlers, and none of our batsmen apart from maybe Faf, scored a decent amount of key runs at 150+SR.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Yes get him in the team.
One of the few young talents we have, it's strange that he is on the outer for some reason.

[chesterton]

Sorry Am I the only one who’s noticed he’s failed in pretty much every innings against good opposition ?

[Mr Twig]

Sorry Am I the only one who’s noticed he’s failed in pretty much every innings against good opposition ?

A jump up too far. Should have played the Singapore series

[zimbos_05]

He should be in the Zim team. Not at the expense of Ervine, Williams or Moor, but he should be.

[encore]

He should be in the Zim team. Not at the expense of Ervine, Williams or Moor, but he should be.

A ZIM fan who still thinks you can win anything with a T20 XI that has all 3 of Moor, Craig and Williams in it . Let me guess, BT is your automatic in T20Is, now you agree Tari should be in it, so complete your XI:

[zimbos_05]

A ZIM fan who still thinks you can win anything with a T20 XI that has all 3 of Moor, Craig and Williams in it . Let me guess, BT is your automatic in T20Is, now you agree Tari should be in it, so complete your XI:

Look, a "zim fan" who can't see past race.

I specifically chose my words so that they did not include "T20" in them, because I knew you would pounce on my statement, and I would pick PJ, Williams and Ervine as starters in certain formats, and keep them around the T20 setup if not playing. Craig is not a T20 player, but he is better than most we have. I don't get to watch the domestic T20 as often as I would like, so often, I base off figures. Tari should be in the side especially based off of his T20 domestic stats. They outshine Elton by a country mile. So if we are picking on form and not skin colour, then you would have Tari instead of Elton, and Craig/Williams at 4.

Speaking of figures. In domestic T20 Sauramba averages 10 after 17 games. Murray averages 45 after 5 innings. Zhuwao averages 20 and Ervine 27. You can do the math.

Also not really sure what you saw in Chari this series that he warrants a spot.

[jaybro]

I think Tari must have upset somebody not to be in the reckoning at all, considering some of the guys who are being picked atm. You can't really say his numbers 'demand selection' but he is obviously one of the few talented young bats left in Zimbabwe.

As for his batting I've always thought he has a couple of glaring technical issues regarding his batting, the main issue is he hits the ball in the air too much which probably isn't as much of an issue in T20 cricket, the other issue I felt was he closes the bat face too much and tries to play to the on-side too often.

I noted that during the Africa T20 which Hhm mentioned above he looked much better and played much straighter and kept the ball on the ground in the early stages of his innings'. Unsurprisingly he was the dominate batsman of that tournament along with Ryan Murray, sadly he was overlooked for the ODI's in South Africa before making two ducks in the T20I's against the same opposition.

He's only 24 so still has plenty of time on his side, but you would have hoped he'd have more domestic hundreds to his name, at this stage he has one Logan Cup ton and no List A hundreds (he does have a 99*). Personally I don't have that high hopes for Tari unless he can fix those issues I mentioned, and going off what the experienced players careers the training and coaching just isn't there in Zimbabwe to help transform a batsman at this level, the same guys have been making the same mistakes for 15 years!!!

I've said it before and I stand by it, I can't see Tari ever being a reliable International batter, I feel he'll average around 25 in ODIs with the odd brilliant innings which will leave us begging for more, much like your Vusi's, Elton's etc

As for his best position to bat, he's mainly batted at 3 or 4 but personally I think he'd better off at 6 or 7 at this point in time where he can come in and accelerate the innings at the end.

[sloandog]

It’s a real shame we never saw the best of Sibanda.

@ encore, would you agree he was one of Zimbabwe’s most naturally talented batsmen who didn’t have the mental strength to consistently succeed? For me he had the best technique in the country and probably still does, after Ervine.

[jaybro]

It’s a real shame we never saw the best of Sibanda.

@ encore, would you agree he was one of Zimbabwe’s most naturally talented batsmen who didn’t have the mental strength to consistently succeed? For me he had the best technique in the country and probably still does, after Ervine.

I thought it was the colonial’s forcing him against his will to open that stopped him from being the best since Bradman?