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Kane Richardson

Paul Munyuki Harare Bureau
AUSTRALIA pace bowler Kane Richardson says they are looking forward to the challenge of playing Zimbabwe when the two sides meet at Harare Sports Club on Monday in the opening One Day International tri-angular series opener.
The boys from Down Under are in Zimbabwe for the first time in 10 years following a political barrier that saw the Australian government barring the side from coming here.

“It is good to be finally here, it was a long trip from Australia obviously and we are looking forward to the big game on Monday.

“We have watched some replays of the games between South Africa and Zimbabwe and I should say they (Zimbabwe) have been competitive but missing the key moments, I guess.

“Zimbabwe have a few good world-class internationals, the middle order is well experienced  and we have to play well to beat them, they are at home and obviously they are more accustomed to playing at Harare Sports Club than Bulawayo,” said the 23-year-old pacer.

With just one ODI cap, Richardson is yet to take a wicket and he hopes Zimbabwe will give him a starting point.

“I do not expect a lot of grass in these conditions. I think towards the end the wicket is going to get a bit slower; not sure what Monday will be like but  I think it is going to be a nice quick wicket and from there it will get slower with each passing game, something good for the batsmen.

“Rotating bowlers will definitely be the case here given the amount of cricket we are going to play after this series.

“We have got a few bowlers and a lot of all-rounders here so it makes it easy to bring in a few new bowlers every game.”

But captain Michael Clarke says there’s no guarantee that every member of the 14-man squad will get a chance to impress the selectors.

“It’s not a token tour; it’s about winning, the selectors (together) with (coach) Darren Lehmann, will come up with what they feel is the best XI (for each match).

“But I’m certainly not there to give guys an opportunity, I’m there to win,” said Clarke.

According to Cricket South Africa, the Proteas will be without the services of seamer Vernon Philander who has been ruled out of the ODI tri-angular series following a hamstring injury and has been replaced in the squad by fiery quick Kyle Abbott.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel return to South Africa’s ODI line-up having been rested from the recent series of one-day games against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

Proteas batsman, Quinton de Kock, who was named man-of-the-series in the three ODI series against Zimbabwe after scoring 185 runs, at an average of 61.66, equalled the world record for the fastest player to score 1000 ODI runs during the series.

“It doesn’t interest me,” he said of the milestone.

“It’s more something for the fans to keep them interested. Some of the players do enjoy stats but I’m very chilled about it.”

Squads
Australia: Michael Clarke (c), George Bailey, Ben Cutting, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Brad Haddin, Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

South Africa: AB de Villiers (capt), Hashim Amla (vc), Kyle Abbott , Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, Dale Steyn

Series Fixtures: Zimbabwe v Australia (August 25), Australia v South Africa (August 27), Zimbabwe v South Africa (August 29), Zimbabwe v Australia (August 31), Australia v South Africa (September 2), Zimbabwe v South Africa (September 4), Final (September 6)