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Australia A are coming

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Opening post

In addition to the certain picks, unless Duffin, Ewing , Meth (instead of Elton), Mpofu & Rainsford(or Panyangara) are in our eleven, I consider us underdogs. Can't see us getting past a highly motivated and aggressive batting line up if we put up novices such as Chatara, Shingi, Nicholson, Njabulo and Jarvis. They will be hammered and their careers dented by an A side fighting for places in the national team.
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I dont get the Mpofu love, he buckles under pressure when we play the top sides.At least when Shingi was going for runs against south africa he wasnt afraid to bounce the opposition and mix his pace up
The Aussies mean business and I am happy. They have sent a quality side with bowlers and batsmen with Test caps. Zimbabwe must do the same, get our best players in First Class cricket to play in this series - these matches will be official First Class by the way.
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For me, I'm curious to see how the staff approach this.

To see what I mean - this is what I'd do.

Select a full strength team for game 1. Then in the 2nd, drop price for prosper, taibu for Regis, and say, ervine for vusi or someone(may not be ervine, could just be someone who scored well game 1).

The reason is why play price twice when we know he's good, test players a little bit, but only slight tinkering as to not dilute competitiveness.

This Aussie team is strong and the papers are hyping it up as saying they mean business.
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As usual I agree with zimdoggy. We need to test our very best against Australia A for at least one match. No point selecting irrelevant fringe players like Tafadzwa Kamungozi to see them get slaughtered.
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
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ZIMDOGGY wrote: Select a full strength team for game 1. Then in the 2nd, drop price for prosper, taibu for Regis, and say, ervine for vusi or someone(may not be ervine, could just be someone who scored well game 1). The reason is why play price twice when we know he's good, test players a little bit, but only slight tinkering as to not dilute competitiveness. This Aussie team is strong and the papers are hyping it up as saying they mean business.


I agree. This is no Continental Cup so go with the strongest team possible.

I differ in one aspect of this though. I wouldn't change the team simply for convenience. It has to forced by poor form or injury. We all agree that these guys mean business, so what makes us think that we will have the luxury of batting and bowling twice. It's a four day game remember. Besides, we know Aus has it's preferred bowling lineup so the bias here is on their batsmen. Those guys are competing among themselves for available spots in the Test side so you can be sure that Hughes, Warner, Ferguson, Paine & Khawaja will rack up the score. In my humble opinion, with the kind of options being thrown around, this side should comfortably beat us.

My advice to the powers that be is - select your best possible side throughout the tour. This might just be your reality check. (This for me will prove why we need to include old heads like Duffin & Ewing as opposed to the rookies).
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I don't think we'll beat Australia A. There's a good chance that a few of those guys they selected will be a fixture in the Australian Test team by the end of this year, so beating this side would be one hell of an accomplishment. For what it's worth, I don't think Bangladesh or New Zealand could beat them either. It's a strong squad.

I agree we need to play the first eleven though, that includes the likes of Price and Taibu. It's a good chance to get back into the rhythm of things for everyone, not to mention in match conditions which will probably be more intense than the Test against Bangladesh. I don't see the point in playing the first eleven for one match and then the aforementioned "irrelevant fringe players" (a cruel but currently accurate turn of phrase) for the second match. Do that during one or two of the limited overs matches if it must be done, but not during the First Class games. This series should be treated like a proper Test series, I don't want to see anyone playing in the first Test against Bangladesh who wasn't considered good enough to play in the series against Australia A (injuries aside, of which there hopefully are none).
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brmtaylor.com admin wrote:I don't see the point in playing the first eleven for one match and then the aforementioned "irrelevant fringe players" (a cruel but currently accurate turn of phrase) for the second match. Do that during one or two of the limited overs matches if it must be done, but not during the First Class games. This series should be treated like a proper Test series, I don't want to see anyone playing in the first Test against Bangladesh who wasn't considered good enough to play in the series against Australia A (injuries aside, of which there hopefully are none).


Can't see anyone arguing with that! Just hope some of my favorites (non-irrelevant fringe players) are considered good enough for this one. :)
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I think these games should be the start of our test season . No joking around with the unknowns .Even the senior players have not had this type of competition at the longer version of the game .For say we dont know wheather Hamilton Masakadza still has the magic that he had to score a century as a teenager.

So for my perspective , let the strongest Zim team be given a chance to warm up for Banga .

Remember the opening experiments that Campbell tried at the WC . failed horribly , I hope we will not start experimenting on the actual Tests though .
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It would be a shame if not tragic if we don't get a decent result with our full strength side. I really want to go and see if we are ready for our return . Looking at the squad that the Aussies are sending i see that its basically the team that will be in place in about two or 3 years and its what our Zim team will be playing so i'm considering this as a full test return though not official.

As for our selections i would love to see an aggressive line up made up of experienced oaks. A lot of you failed to mention the return of Hamilton Masakadza i do believe he had a strong domestic season he was the leading run getter and got3 hundreds at an average of 71 one of the best local performers and Logan Cup that was dominated by county players.For me Duffin or Ewing would not feature in our top or Middle Order considering established internationals like Taylor, Taibu, , Ervine with my wild card being the physco Vermullen .

As for the allrounder spot its a no brainer drop our captain and let Meth have a go

Our bowlers are in for a baptism but i dont mind at all o would want to have a balance of having Chitara , Meath and Njabulo with and Niclson there is no depth at all in our quicks and i guess thats coz the ZC has let tallent wonder off into the wilderness ala , Mwayeng's , Jarvis , Watambwas
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