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ZIMBABWE’S preparations for next year’s ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup will continue in earnest this week, with four one-day matches against Kenya Under-19 in Kwekwe.

The matches will be played on August 3, 4, 6 and 7 at Kwekwe Sports Club.

The Kenyan side is scheduled to land in Harare today before proceeding to Kwekwe.

The tour comes hard on the heels of the Zimbabwe Under-19 side’s 2-1 series loss to the West Indies Under-19s in Harare.

Zimbabwe Cricket has stopped at nothing to ensure the Under-19 side, coached by Stephen Mangongo, is well prepared for the 2018 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup to be held in New Zealand from January 13 to February 3.

Before facing the West Indies, Zimbabwe whitewashed Namibia in a reciprocal series and also played as the High Performance Centre XI against Canada.

Mangongo’s boys were also involved in a tri-series in South Africa featuring the hosts and Sri Lanka. They had earlier toured Malaysia before the South African series.

After the one-day matches against Kenya, the Zimbabwe Under-19s are scheduled to tour Australia and India before heading to the global showpiece.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan are closing in on playing their maiden Test, and are in talks with Zimbabwe for a full series later this year.

The series is likely to be hosted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). Afghanistan were conferred Test status by the ICC in June this year.

ESPNcricinfo understands the series is likely to comprise one Test, five ODIs and between two to three T20Is.

With Afghanistan not in a position to host cricket at home, the ACB is looking at hosting the series either in India or the UAE.

It is understood that Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) sent an e-mail to the ACB last week giving an in-principle nod.

Both boards will take a final decision once ZC finalises the dates of the scheduled tri-series in Bangladesh, which, as per the ICC Future Tours Programme (FTP), is to be played between January-February next year.

Ideally, ZC wants to play Afghanistan in the UAE and then travel to Bangladesh.

If the plans materialise, it will give Afghanistan a significant boost, after they have hopped into the top echelons of international cricket since gaining ODI status in 2009.

During this period, Afghanistan registered memorable results, including three consecutive limited-overs series victories against Zimbabwe before recently drawing the ODI series in West Indies in June. — ESPNcricinfo-ZimCricket.