Zimpapers Logo

lnnocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) expects Sean Williams and Blessing Muzarabani to return for the Afghanistan series which gets underway at Harare Sports Club next month.

Blessing Muzarabani

The series includes three one-day internationals and three T20 internationals.

The ODIs are scheduled for June 4, 6 and 9, with the T20Is set for June 11, 12 and 14.

According to ZC, seven established players missed the embarrassing 3-2 T20I series loss to Namibia due to injury or other reasons.

Captain Craig Ervine was forced to sit out the decisive fifth game and Ryan Burl the last two after they tested positive for Covid-19, but both have since returned negative results and are ready to play again.

Milton Shumba, who played the first two T20Is against Namibia before being sidelined by a right quadricep strain, is also expected to be passed fit for the Afghanistan challenge.

Williams is likely to make his long-awaited return to action after ZC had granted him compassionate leave to attend to private matters.

Muzarabani has been away at the Indian Premier League (IPL) since March and his return with the others will be a massive boost for struggling Zimbabwe.

The home side will, however, still likely to be without two influential players, Richard Ngarava and Wellington Masakadza, who are yet to fully recover from lower back and right shoulder injuries, which ruled them out of the Namibia series.

“We have been depleted, with Muzarabani at the IPL and Williams unavailable for personal reasons, while one of our best seamers as well as one of our best spinners are recuperating from injuries,” ZC convener of selectors David Mutendera said.

“We, however, back the squad that we are going to pick to deliver.

We are looking at a few considerations before announcing the squad and with Muzarabani and Williams expected to be available, while Ervine, Burl and Shumba are now fit again, the guys should be able to do the job.”

The ODI series is part of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League, serving as a qualifier for the 2023 edition of the 50-over ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to be staged in India.

The T20Is will serve as part of Zimbabwe’s final preparations for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B 2022, which is one of two global tournaments that together form the final stage of the qualification process for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

– @innocentskizoe