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The Bulawayo side has had an uninspiring start in the shorter versions losing to Manicaland Mountaineers and Mashonaland Eagles in the 50 over games.

Tuskers have had a sloppy start to the season, losing by seven wickets against Manicaland Mountaineers in their first game of the season and also lost five runs in the Twenty20 game to the same side.

They lost by a wicket in the One-Day game against Eagles.

They also lost to Southern Rocks in the Twenty20 matches.

Tuskers’ assistant coach Pollock Mubhobho blamed sluggish batting to their defeats and said their chances of winning the two competitions were slowly fading away.

“To be realistic, we have not been playing well as the batsmen have not been taking responsibility. Since our first game, our batsmen have not been getting things right as they are not occupying the cris for long. The problem is that our batsmen are not doing the basics right.

“We have put ourselves in a difficult situation and now we have to dig ourselves out by winning against MidWest Rhinos. It will not be easy but we have to fight because at the beginning of the season we said we were going for everything on offer and we still going for that. We will not throw in the towel even though we are in a tricky situation now,” said Mubhobho.

Tuskers will have to do without injured batsmen trio of Keith Dabengwa, Sean Williams and Gavin Ewing.

“We are short of batsmen and this means that we will have to play in some allrounders. We have to control the controllable and do our best with the players we have because most of them are good at the longer version (Logan Cup),” said Mubhobho.

Williams picked an injury in Masvingo last weekend where he was the second best scoring batsmen with 33 runs. Keegan Meth had picked the most runs for Tuskers in the One-Day game managing 36.

It is highly likely that Terrence Duffin and Brian Chari will be Tuskers’ opening batsmen with Sean Ervine coming in at number three.

Craig Ervine, Charles “Chopper” Coventry, allrounder Thabo Mboyi and Meth are also expected to lead Tuskers’ batting attack.

Allrounders John Nyumbu and Njabulo Ncube who did not play in the midweek game against Eagles in Harare may also return to action today.

Nyumbu, Ncube and Glen Querl and are also expected to lead Tuskers’ bowling attack.

Rhinos have a strong side which includes Vusi Sibanda, Mark Vermeulen, Ed Rainsford and Graham Cremer whose experience can lead the Midlands side to victory.