Test Opening options

[jaybro]

Who are those many Zimbos who have been forced to open in order to "make their way into the side"? Could you perhaps provide a list?

Ebrahim
Rennie
Rogers
Raza
Vermeulan
BRMT
Maruma


There's probably more but that's just a few guys who opened in the beginning of their careers but would later move down the order or would prefer to bat lower down the order.

Not saying you're wrong or anything but I played against Ebrahim at school and he opened then. He was technically a very sound batsman. He took our bowling to pieces once he got going. A great loss to Zimbabwe cricket. *sigh*

Yes he might have done, just pointing out a trend of players who first entered the side as an opener than moved down the order or a 'non-opener' put in the side as an opener ......

[Mueddie28]

This is not about quotas, it's about realty. Which is why this specialist argument is so cruicial. It is key because the sad thing in Zimbabwe is that you can be hopeless in two formats, have a stand-out performance in one format, then suddenly here guys think you should be part of a squad for a different format or all formats. Again the reality is people want to see their own in the mix, which is not always possible. We also face the same problem in South Africa - what if Bavuma or Rabada are horribly out of form - what then? We have see past those "self-inflicted barriers".

There is a need to focus on the bowling too, not just on the batting because bowlingg is really what's causing the problem. The only non-African bowler of near-international quality in Zimbabwe is Cremer. That's a fact. To compensate for that there is a clear attempt to use non-striking run-donating personnel as "bowling options" to justify their presence in the team or accomodate them. So if specialist bowlers are strictly selected then Cremer is the only one - but like a Rabda, he can also be affected by injuries or loss of form. This partly explains his being handed the captaincy when he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Howver, in batting there is a competitive mix. So with guys like Mire, Musakanda and Hami laying claim to 3 of the batting spots in the ODIs(and T20s?) that leaves another 3 spots for batting for non-African players. A guy like Chigumbura is an absolute must in T20s which makes it four there. Plus in that format, Malcolm Waller has definitely overtaken Sean and Craig, perhaps Moor the other T20 shoe-in. On short-term, medium-term and long-term form, Raza has been an abject failure in T20s, so definitely has to be dropped from that format.

When you move over to Tests and try and assemble the squad - you need to have 4 specialist bowlers. Add Hami at 3, Craig Ervine at 4, Raza at 6 and Regis at 7, plus two openers of which none of those players want to be (so those openers can be any of e.g. Mawoyo, Chamu, Kasuza, Chari, Innocent Kaia, Kunje and maybe Burl etc). What it essentially means is that you have Vusi, Malcolm, Williams and Musakanda fighting for one spot - number 5. It gets worse if we decide bring in a Mire at number 5, on merit as a batsman in his own right, or so that a seamer can be dropped for another spinner.

I think guys talk merit, but it's the reality they find hard to accept at times. I'm of the firm view that Raza is Test XI material, but only as a Test opener and nothing else. That would leave Zimbabwe with sufficient room to have another batting option in at 7, plus an allrounder to accomodate a 2nd specialist spinner if need be. Plus it reduces the openers headache to one as opposed to two.

01.(Opener01?)
02.(Opener02?)
03.Hami
04.Craig
05.(MiddleOrderBat?)
06.Raza (I prefer him to open so this can be reserved to groom youngsters on merit though)
07.Regis(wk)
08.Cremer (or Mushagwe/Wellington/Chisoro?)
09.(Seamer01?) (Shingi for me)
10.(Seamer02?) (Panyangara for me)
11.(Seamer03?) (Chatara for me)

1 Mire
2 Chakabva / P J Moor wk
3 Hami
4 Ervine
5 Sean William
6 Raza
7 M Waller
8 Cremer
9 N Waller / Burl ,( Chigumbura if in form )( they have to bowl)
10 Welly or Chisoro
11 Chatara

[Kriterion_BD]

Agree with everything you said Kriterion, which is unusual for us

Yes probably the first time ever, haha.

[Kriterion_BD]

There is nothing wrong with taking time in tests.. in fact we probably lost the last test because our run rate was too high...

This is a valid point and one I was thining about a few days ago. The average run rate in Tests nowadays is around 3.20 to 3.30 I think. Zimbabwe and Pakistan have batted at a slower clip than other teams at under 3. But in the SL Test, ZIM were well above that scoring at over 3.5 for the match if I recall correctly. And there is nothing wrong with that approach given that there are usually big gaps in the field. But in Tests, you've got to bat time no matter how quickly you score. Zimbabwe barely batted 200 overs in the match, so I would venture to say that a guy like Mawoyo or even Chari (if he can face 100+ balls consistently) would really help. If Zimbabwe had batted at their current decade's average run rate of 2.88 they would have batted 254 overs for the same number of runs. Thats more than 50 overs more, and that would have likely drawn the match.

[Lostart]

So just some stats


Leading Run scorers
MAT IN NO RUN HS AVG BF SR 100 50 0 4 6
PJ Moor 7 13 1 508 157 42.33 838 60.62 1 2 0 47 13
SC Williams 6 12 1 471 112 42.81 691 68.16 2 1 0 60 4
KT Kasuza 7 11 1 446 104 44.60 1007 44.28 1 3 1 45 3
PS Masvaure 8 15 3 427 123* 35.58 726 58.81 1 2 1 48 3
BB Chari 9 15 1 420 118 30.00 991 42.38 1 2 0 40 8

Surely you pick an opener from these guys if any are openers.

Also on an unrelated note, Who's James Bruce, he had the best average bowling played 1 match too 5 wickets. Says he is a left arm medium fast, sounds interesting. We could always use some variety in our attack.

Keeper, Why is Foster Mutizwa not talked about, has a first class average of 38 and was a fairly good glove man

[pariah]

Kriterion, as they say in your parts "don't play yourself nigga"! What point is this that you're trying to make by lumping 3 formats together?

Forget Williams. Take away Craig's 160 and he's no better than Mawoyo who actually OPENS the batting in seam friendly conditions. Those two aren't even as good as Chakabva in Test and will retire that way, so how can they even be compared to Hami at any stage?

I think guys can be a little misguided at times. Craig is 32, Sean and Raza 31. They're just a year younger than Hami, and haven't achieved much in Tests since ZIM got back to Tests in 2011.

Anyway...

[GregorPJ]

Forget Williams. Take away Craig's 160 and he's no better than Mawoyo who actually OPENS the batting in seam friendly conditions.

Pick and choose your stats

[Kriterion_BD]

Kriterion, as they say in your parts "don't play yourself nigga"! What point is this that you're trying to make by lumping 3 formats together?

Forget Williams. Take away Craig's 160 and he's no better than Mawoyo who actually OPENS the batting in seam friendly conditions. Those two aren't even as good as Chakabva in Test and will retire that way, so how can they even be compared to Hami at any stage?

I think guys can be a little misguided at times. Craig is 32, Sean and Raza 31. They're just a year younger than Hami, and haven't achieved much in Tests since ZIM got back to Tests in 2011.

Anyway...

What are you smoking?

Craig and Raza have real Test centuries against an established side. Craig actually has two of them. In the last 10 innings.

Hamilton has 3 centuries against Bangladesh - whose bowling attack was the worst in the history of Test cricket when he scored those runs. Fine, you can count his 158 scored in Khulna since that bowling attack was half decent (Shakib, Taijul, Jubair). The only other ton he has is against an unknown West Indies lineup. If it makes you feel better, Taylor has 3 of his 4 tons vs a weak BD attack too. But the 4th one was a 4th innings effort vs a solid NZ attack and nearly won them that Test.

Even Williams has a swashbuckling effort against NZ in the very recent past.

Apart from his 70 odd in the win vs Pakistan, and his two knocks in the ODIs vs SL, I don't think Hamilton has played many match winning knocks vs non-minnow sides.

[Jemisi]

Kriterion, as they say in your parts "don't play yourself nigga"! What point is this that you're trying to make by lumping 3 formats together?

Forget Williams. Take away Craig's 160 and he's no better than Mawoyo who actually OPENS the batting in seam friendly conditions. Those two aren't even as good as Chakabva in Test and will retire that way, so how can they even be compared to Hami at any stage?

I think guys can be a little misguided at times. Craig is 32, Sean and Raza 31. They're just a year younger than Hami, and haven't achieved much in Tests since ZIM got back to Tests in 2011.

Anyway...

Ervine is on the verge of averaging 40 in tests, yet hasn't achieved much? Both his hundreds are against top 8 teams. Why the desire to 'take away his 160?" In his last three series he has made a fifty or a century (and big hundreds too) every 2nd innings. Not consistent enough? What mystifies me about you Hhm is your desire to undermine some of your halfway decent thinking with random threads of one-eyed nonsense. You think Regis will surpass him? It would be lovely for Zim if he did because Ervine is actually heading somewhere. We have a batsman who might break through into the 40s after a very long time without Flower.

[pariah]

In his last three series he has made a fifty or a century (and big hundreds too) every 2nd innings. Not consistent enough? What mystifies me about you Hhm is your desire to undermine some of your halfway decent thinking with random threads of one-eyed nonsense. You think Regis will surpass him? It would be lovely for Zim if he did because Ervine is actually heading somewhere.

It's very debatable if Craig should even have had another go at a Test career remember?

But credit to him because he's come back and done well. Plus he did face Boult and Southee. But one can't ignore the fact that NZ in Bulawayo, and SL in Colombo were actually the flatest, most lifeless pitches in Zimbawe's Test history since 1992. Everyone here will also tell you that Harare pitch was probably the worst it has ever been in 20 years.

Initially Craig failed badly as a low middle order batsman and was dropped from the Test squad twice in that period. That's very bad considering the kinds of platforms he got at times and the generous batting positions he was in for a "senior". Problem is Craig is already 32 years old, his Test career of "heading somwhere" as you put it is just 12 months old, thrives only in dead pitches, and has just one score over 50 in 12 innings overseas in his Test career! It's not for no reason that guys here doubted him ahead of that Test in SL.

Regis Chakabva should never have been dropped from the Test side. He proved in NZ and BD that he is genuine Test material, and has also done so for ZIM A/XI and in the domestic FC competition. Serious questions should be asked as to how that even happened because he was a captaincy option plus touted as such by a number of people for the future. Yet he has played just 10 matches and been horribly messed around a lot. Mutumbami and Moor could never be in his class in several lifetimes of trying - but have played 6 and 4 tests respectively. I can tell you now without batting an eyelid that 5 years ago Regis could have moved to South Africa and easily made it into one of the franchises and been selected for the Proteas - those two rejected by even Ireland.

In terms of succession planning Regis Chakabva is ZImbabwe's future as far as Test cricket is concerned. If Zimbabwe was a sane cricket nation, those in charge would have long realised that and built the team around him. Right now - whether bowler, bastman or keeper - no other player comes remotely close to him as a certain Test XI, except 26 year old injury-ridden Chatara.