Zimbabwe v Afghanistan Test Squad

[Googly]

If ZC want to legitimately buy some time it's almost time for the Big 3 to go. I'd like to see one of them make some runs in the remaining ODI or one of the 2 tests. One big innings between 3 of them in 5 innings, not a high bar.
15 chances!!

I feel Williams still has what it takes, but I'm becoming skeptical about the other two. They're not making a difference and they're chewing up time. Raza playing in the test is both disgraceful and an act of desperation.
The public are not buying his platitudes. It's arrogant to say the least when he says he's the one that needs to make runs and he owes us runs. Everyone needs to figure shit out real fast, it's not on him alone. Maybe be more honest where we're at and not be part of the smoke and mirrors?

ZC are gambling on "saving face" by giving a decent account of themselves in the test matches because they believe it's our strongest suit. Players haven't been able to hide in the T20's or the ODI's because nobody has performed so believe me there's even less places to hide in a Test. It's in the name.

Oh Newman is being touted as the next big thing. When will they ever learn to stop doing that ? It's pathetic. It's not even fun (despite the fact they think we're waiting for a failure) when it backfires because we need to stop embarrassing ourselves every single game we play, barring Equitorial Guinea!
There's nobody to pump up, EVERYONE is behind the 8 ball!!
We don't have a single generational talent. Give it up!!!
Cricket has moved on and we've gone in reverse.
We have to start with a base of players and learn all over again how to compete with the big guys. We have to learn how to compete first, forget winning
There's no quick fix, it's that dire. We need guys who will practice their arses off and be grimly determined to fight and regain a tiny bit of national pride. We are useless and pathetic and the laughing stock of the Cricketing world. It's worse than that, they feel sorry for us. End of!!
Winning a surprise low scoring game or dead rubber is just not cutting it.

Newman bowled reasonably, a bit short and wayward, but looked promising. Two of the wickets were after the damage had been done, stats dont tell you that.
I'd open with him next game. He's got something going for him for sure.

[TapsC2]

Raza's inclusion allows us to play 8 batsmen and 3 seamers. I'm not against it as long he doesn't throw his wicket away when he is batting.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Raza is a must until the next World Cup at least.

His bowling stats are as good as anyone we pick for their bowling alone and he is still one of our best batsman and he doesn’t get bogged down.

He is an associate bully, no one has brought that up more than me, but he does get the odd score against proper countries too.

Even if his batting tanks, he makes the team as a bowling all rounder.

[eugene]

If ZC want to legitimately buy some time it's almost time for the Big 3 to go. I'd like to see one of them make some runs in the remaining ODI or one of the 2 tests. One big innings between 3 of them in 5 innings, not a high bar.
15 chances!!

I feel Williams still has what it takes, but I'm becoming skeptical about the other two. They're not making a difference and they're chewing up time. Raza playing in the test is both disgraceful and an act of desperation.
The public are not buying his platitudes. It's arrogant to say the least when he says he's the one that needs to make runs and he owes us runs. Everyone needs to figure shit out real fast, it's not on him alone. Maybe be more honest where we're at and not be part of the smoke and mirrors?

ZC are gambling on "saving face" by giving a decent account of themselves in the test matches because they believe it's our strongest suit. Players haven't been able to hide in the T20's or the ODI's because nobody has performed so believe me there's even less places to hide in a Test. It's in the name.

Oh Newman is being touted as the next big thing. When will they ever learn to stop doing that ? It's pathetic. It's not even fun (despite the fact they think we're waiting for a failure) when it backfires because we need to stop embarrassing ourselves every single game we play, barring Equitorial Guinea!
There's nobody to pump up, EVERYONE is behind the 8 ball!!
We don't have a single generational talent. Give it up!!!
Cricket has moved on and we've gone in reverse.
We have to start with a base of players and learn all over again how to compete with the big guys. We have to learn how to compete first, forget winning
There's no quick fix, it's that dire. We need guys who will practice their arses off and be grimly determined to fight and regain a tiny bit of national pride. We are useless and pathetic and the laughing stock of the Cricketing world. It's worse than that, they feel sorry for us. End of!!
Winning a surprise low scoring game or dead rubber is just not cutting it.

Newman bowled reasonably, a bit short and wayward, but looked promising. Two of the wickets were after the damage had been done, stats dont tell you that.
I'd open with him next game. He's got something going for him for sure.

Do you suggest a return to the Kevin Curran days when winning matches wasn't in the equation, it was simply getting time in the middle for the young players? Opposition scores 350 - let's see if we can get 250 at our own pace?

[Pat_Bee]

Ya, totally.

We’re getting beat anyway. Runs don’t even matter, time does. I’d rather post 150-200 and see out the 50 overs than be all out for <60 just after the first drinks break

Batting 50 overs would be a moral victory to borrow a phrase from the English.

[Kriterion_BD]

If ZC want to legitimately buy some time it's almost time for the Big 3 to go. I'd like to see one of them make some runs in the remaining ODI or one of the 2 tests. One big innings between 3 of them in 5 innings, not a high bar.
15 chances!!

I feel Williams still has what it takes, but I'm becoming skeptical about the other two. They're not making a difference and they're chewing up time. Raza playing in the test is both disgraceful and an act of desperation.
The public are not buying his platitudes. It's arrogant to say the least when he says he's the one that needs to make runs and he owes us runs. Everyone needs to figure shit out real fast, it's not on him alone. Maybe be more honest where we're at and not be part of the smoke and mirrors?

ZC are gambling on "saving face" by giving a decent account of themselves in the test matches because they believe it's our strongest suit. Players haven't been able to hide in the T20's or the ODI's because nobody has performed so believe me there's even less places to hide in a Test. It's in the name.

Oh Newman is being touted as the next big thing. When will they ever learn to stop doing that ? It's pathetic. It's not even fun (despite the fact they think we're waiting for a failure) when it backfires because we need to stop embarrassing ourselves every single game we play, barring Equitorial Guinea!
There's nobody to pump up, EVERYONE is behind the 8 ball!!
We don't have a single generational talent. Give it up!!!
Cricket has moved on and we've gone in reverse.
We have to start with a base of players and learn all over again how to compete with the big guys. We have to learn how to compete first, forget winning
There's no quick fix, it's that dire. We need guys who will practice their arses off and be grimly determined to fight and regain a tiny bit of national pride. We are useless and pathetic and the laughing stock of the Cricketing world. It's worse than that, they feel sorry for us. End of!!
Winning a surprise low scoring game or dead rubber is just not cutting it.

Newman bowled reasonably, a bit short and wayward, but looked promising. Two of the wickets were after the damage had been done, stats dont tell you that.
I'd open with him next game. He's got something going for him for sure.

Raza definitely has delusions of grandeur. An IPL gig can do that to you. Not judging most people overestimate their worth and professional sports requires a certain degree of arrogance. There is a very fine line between confidence and cockiness after all.

But playing Devils advocate, maybe Raza is being honest when he says he has to score the runs. The only other guys who can score are Ervine and Williams and Ervine hasn’t had a big innings in probably 5 years. A Gumbie or Innocent might score a few decent innings but generally do it so slowly that it won’t end up winning the game. This, it really is all down to the Big 3, and more specifically Raza and Williams (who remembers the last time Craig cross three figures?).

[Pat_Bee]

he got a couple of hundreds for Zim A against the Pakistan Shaheens last year.

His last full international one was 105 against Ireland in a 50 over game in July 2019 That can't be right can it?

[Googly]

If ZC want to legitimately buy some time it's almost time for the Big 3 to go. I'd like to see one of them make some runs in the remaining ODI or one of the 2 tests. One big innings between 3 of them in 5 innings, not a high bar.
15 chances!!

I feel Williams still has what it takes, but I'm becoming skeptical about the other two. They're not making a difference and they're chewing up time. Raza playing in the test is both disgraceful and an act of desperation.
The public are not buying his platitudes. It's arrogant to say the least when he says he's the one that needs to make runs and he owes us runs. Everyone needs to figure shit out real fast, it's not on him alone. Maybe be more honest where we're at and not be part of the smoke and mirrors?

ZC are gambling on "saving face" by giving a decent account of themselves in the test matches because they believe it's our strongest suit. Players haven't been able to hide in the T20's or the ODI's because nobody has performed so believe me there's even less places to hide in a Test. It's in the name.

Oh Newman is being touted as the next big thing. When will they ever learn to stop doing that ? It's pathetic. It's not even fun (despite the fact they think we're waiting for a failure) when it backfires because we need to stop embarrassing ourselves every single game we play, barring Equitorial Guinea!
There's nobody to pump up, EVERYONE is behind the 8 ball!!
We don't have a single generational talent. Give it up!!!
Cricket has moved on and we've gone in reverse.
We have to start with a base of players and learn all over again how to compete with the big guys. We have to learn how to compete first, forget winning
There's no quick fix, it's that dire. We need guys who will practice their arses off and be grimly determined to fight and regain a tiny bit of national pride. We are useless and pathetic and the laughing stock of the Cricketing world. It's worse than that, they feel sorry for us. End of!!
Winning a surprise low scoring game or dead rubber is just not cutting it.

Newman bowled reasonably, a bit short and wayward, but looked promising. Two of the wickets were after the damage had been done, stats dont tell you that.
I'd open with him next game. He's got something going for him for sure.

Do you suggest a return to the Kevin Curran days when winning matches wasn't in the equation, it was simply getting time in the middle for the young players? Opposition scores 350 - let's see if we can get 250 at our own pace?

That's absolutely where we're at against Pakistan and Afghanistan. I think we'd give a better account of ourselves against England, Australia, NZ, WI etc- any team thats not loaded with tricky spinners. Ireland will be the telling for these young guys.

[Googly]

I'm sure he has, but when was the last time Raza made runs against a big team? When was the last time we actually played a big team?
We're either busy playing nail biting qualifiers against Associates or no big teams want to play us or ZC doesn't want to play them that we're never going to improve.

There's no way out of this hole ZC have dug for us. The generational gems have been found out. We're now looking for guys with a high ceiling that will practice 3 hours a day with a Flower attitude of being convinced theyre as good, if not better than the household names. The kicker is we've got to find guys who'll do it for free. So they have to be good foragers and hunter gatherers in their free time. They could of course rummage in the ZC Admin dustbins for high end scraps.

[Googly]

I see Mawoza is saying Raza won't play the second test.
Why not? Either play all of them or none of them.
How does he get to decide where and when he plays, is he a selector? I think we saw his hand in the T10's as well.