I am yet to see the kid play but Im really loving his performances off later. Im wondering if we have another Alistar Cambell in the making. We have struggled to fill in the opening pair since the days off the likes of Cambell/Fower/Goodwin/Johnson but this kid seems to have something special. What do you fellas think?
Couldn't agree more. However, has he committed to play for Zim or is he still protecting his kolpak status?
The return to test cricket has always been undermined by 2 questions:- 1) Who is good enough to open the batting (last year none of the 6/7 international standard batsmen opened for their franchise) and 2) Who is good enough to open the bowling?
With Taylor now opening for Zim and the Rhinos and if Ballance were to commit to Zim that would answre question 1. With regard to question 2 there is some promise but I'm not sure any of; Rainsford, S.Masakadza, Mpofu, Jarvis, Nicholson, Panyangara or Chatara could yet claim to be Test standard opening bowlers.
Ps The other 8 players of the 12 would be made up of H.Masakadza, V.Sibanda, F.Mutizwa or C.Ervine, S.Williams or G.Lamb, T.Taibu, E.Chigumbura, G.Cremer & R.Price.
he will be a star . no doubts he just needs to stay commited to zim cricket.Him and masakadza look a solid test opening pair.with williams,taylor,ervine,taibu,chigumbura even mutizwa looks a very good lineup.
I think we are all forgetting about a certain terry duffin who scored 193 recently opening. Sure he is hopeless as a ODI Player but he scored a 50 against india on test debut. He is a gritty player rather than flamboyant but at the top of the order that is what we need to see off the new ball and build a platform
Terry Duffin when an in-form makes for an excellent test opener. He doesn't throw his wicket away like many of our batsmen seem to. Duffin has the potential to fill the role of anchor while having a more attacking opener at the other end.
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
Gary is a qaulity player at club level had first hand expierience playing against him twice this season against Barnsley manged to get him out after he scored a solid ton against us when we played him at home (Hull YPI) alouthough he did slog sweep me a very long way into the rugby field before lol. This guy will hopefully stay with Zim where he has a very good chance of playing test cricket in the near future.