I know people have different opinions on this guy but I always thought he was a pretty decent player, he seems to have a good technique and good temprement but always seems to fall out of the team. I think the main problem is the selectors are always pushing him up to open when I believe he is more suited to number 3, plus he is probably more of a longer form player. I think people forget he played a number of good innings @ 1st drop before he got shuffled up the order. At the age of 26 he is just about to enter the "Goldern age" for batsman so I think he could play a role for Zimbabwe in all formats ..... batting @ 3.
As this table of Chamu's ODI career shows he has had a much better time of it @ No. 3 where he averages 8 runs more than his career average than opening where he clearly struggles with 8 runs less. He also has 8 half centuries batting @ 3 compared to just the 1 opening the innings.
No. Inns NO 50s 100s HS Runs Avg
1 / 2 19 0 1 0 62 261 13.74
No. 3 32 0 8 0 73 928 29.00
No. 4 3 0 0 0 19 28 9.33
No. 5
No. 6 3 0 0 0 30 31 10.33
No. 7 3 1 0 0 *48 58 29.00
No. 8 3 0 0 0 5 6 2.00
No. 9
No. 10
No. 11
Overall 63 1 9 0 73 1312 21.16
He is also a great fielder which helps and although Im not a fan of his bowling he can roll the arm over.
Any thoughts ???
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Chamu Chibhabha
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ZCF OriginalZCF Hall of Famer
Some negatives for Chamu:
1. He is woeful against spin, even by Zimbabwean standards. You have to see him bat against spin to believe it. So, he can only bat where chances of facing spin is very less. That makes the choices get reduced to top 3. You can't force a natural no. 3 like Hamilton or Williams to open just to fit Chamu there, as those two are far more accomplished than him, and it would be unfair on them. So, he is supposed to showcase his usefulness only at the very top, where he has managed to fail consistently.
2. Having him in the team gives a false belief to his skipper (whoever it is at that point) that he has a decent medium pacer to roll his arms over at some stage of the innings. This makes the skipper feel that he can let the likes of Williams and Hamilton focus on their batting alone, but the end result would be some really expensive overs from Chamu, which could have been avoided if the other two mentioned earlier had bowled - far more accomplished part timers.
3. Chamu is very slow at the beginning of his knocks (his overall ODI strike rate is testimony to this fact) and even though he might have built some decent innings in the past, he would have put the non-striker in tremendous pressure to score quickly to compensate for his slow strike rate, and the likes of Taylor, Vusi and Hamilton would have lost their wickets trying something extravagant due to that.
Overall, not worth investing on, unless he improves on these deficiencies.
1. He is woeful against spin, even by Zimbabwean standards. You have to see him bat against spin to believe it. So, he can only bat where chances of facing spin is very less. That makes the choices get reduced to top 3. You can't force a natural no. 3 like Hamilton or Williams to open just to fit Chamu there, as those two are far more accomplished than him, and it would be unfair on them. So, he is supposed to showcase his usefulness only at the very top, where he has managed to fail consistently.
2. Having him in the team gives a false belief to his skipper (whoever it is at that point) that he has a decent medium pacer to roll his arms over at some stage of the innings. This makes the skipper feel that he can let the likes of Williams and Hamilton focus on their batting alone, but the end result would be some really expensive overs from Chamu, which could have been avoided if the other two mentioned earlier had bowled - far more accomplished part timers.
3. Chamu is very slow at the beginning of his knocks (his overall ODI strike rate is testimony to this fact) and even though he might have built some decent innings in the past, he would have put the non-striker in tremendous pressure to score quickly to compensate for his slow strike rate, and the likes of Taylor, Vusi and Hamilton would have lost their wickets trying something extravagant due to that.
Overall, not worth investing on, unless he improves on these deficiencies.
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Chamu is no good. His bowling is bush league stuff, and his batting is painfully limited and slow.
My All-time Zimbabwe XI
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani
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ShareGiven the amount of chances he's had in ODIs and his average in the low 20s primarily as a batsman, he doesn't warrant being picked. The guy has been tried and tested and proven to be not up to the task. Harsh but true
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Yeah I definatley don't rate his bowling and if the skipper is dumb enough to use him that's their own fault when he gets carted for 7 an over. I will admit I haven't seen him face much spin but I do believe he is sound against pace, lets face it is there a Zimbabwean batter who plays spin well ?? Don't think so,Taylor and Williams may do it better than the others but I think Shillingford showed they all need to work on playing the turning ball.
I'm not saying he deserves to be in the team right now but I would like to see him bat @ 3 this season for the Eagles and see what he can do and hopefully he improves his weaknesses against spin and slow run rate in limited over matches because he does average 29 batting @ 1st drop and if he can improve that average into the 30's he could prove a handy player.
I'm not saying he deserves to be in the team right now but I would like to see him bat @ 3 this season for the Eagles and see what he can do and hopefully he improves his weaknesses against spin and slow run rate in limited over matches because he does average 29 batting @ 1st drop and if he can improve that average into the 30's he could prove a handy player.
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ZIMDOGGY wrote:would help his cause if he didnt want to leave zimbabwe
So do we now know who you were talking about a while back?
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I am a big Fan and a team mate of Chamu at Club level and i strongly believe he hasnt been given a full run in the ODI squad like Chigs, Hami and Regis. He is one of the best strikers and stroke players in the country . He is comfortable at batting between 3 and 5 where he is most effective. When he opens he feels he has to score quickly and takes more risks to have an impact thus it becomes a low percentage position for Chamu .
I believe he can be a classified as a allrounder who Bats more than he bowls. He just is not putting in the time into his bowling i rate him a better bowler than Hami an even Chigs he is a steady line bowler who i would bowl at most 6 overs in an ODI.
I will try and find out how he is doing on the club scene in England
I believe he can be a classified as a allrounder who Bats more than he bowls. He just is not putting in the time into his bowling i rate him a better bowler than Hami an even Chigs he is a steady line bowler who i would bowl at most 6 overs in an ODI.
I will try and find out how he is doing on the club scene in England
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gargamel wrote:I am a big Fan and a team mate of Chamu at Club level and i strongly believe he hasnt been given a full run in the ODI squad like Chigs, Hami and Regis. He is one of the best strikers and stroke players in the country . He is comfortable at batting between 3 and 5 where he is most effective. When he opens he feels he has to score quickly and takes more risks to have an impact thus it becomes a low percentage position for Chamu .
I believe he can be a classified as a allrounder who Bats more than he bowls. He just is not putting in the time into his bowling i rate him a better bowler than Hami an even Chigs he is a steady line bowler who i would bowl at most 6 overs in an ODI.
I will try and find out how he is doing on the club scene in England
:o :shock: Needs to work on his bowling more to be classified as an all-rounder again. ;)
CremerCurrans
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