ZIMBABWE’S tour of Ireland should offer the Chevrons a chance to boost their floundering campaign in the 2023 ICC World Cup Super League.
The Chevrons have started badly in the Super League, which also act as the qualification pathway to the 2023 World Cup.
They sit bottom of the 13-team table with one win from six outings. Lalchand Rajput’s men, who are coming from a 0-3 thumping, at the hands of Bangladesh, are set to play three ODIs in Ireland.
The tour, which will also include five T20 Internationals, was confirmed by hosts, Cricket Ireland, in a new schedule announced this week.
“The original series dates had to be rescheduled when advice received by government and health authorities around quarantining requirements meant that the series could not go ahead as originally planned,” said a statement from Cricket Ireland.
“The main changes in the new schedule – apart from playing dates – is that two of the T20 Internationals will now be played at Clontarf, and the T20 International series will now be played prior to the World Cup Super League One-Day Internationals, effectively flipping the playing schedule.
“As part of the broader schedule, the Ireland Wolves will play a Zimbabwe XI in a 50-over match leading into the ODI series.”
The ODI series forms part of the 2023 ICC World Cup Super League, which is the qualifying pathway for the next World Cup. A win carries 10 points.
While Zimbabwe anchor the table with one win in six games, Ireland have played more and are on seventh place with 35 points.
They have played 12 games, won three and lost eight.
One match ended in no result due to bad weather when they hosted South Africa recently.
Zimbabwe still have a long way to go with fixtures against Australia, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka and Netherlands still to come in the Super League.
The Chevrons are currently focusing on the tour of Ireland and are waiting for the clearance from the Government to begin proper preparations.
Ireland hosted South Africa last month in three ODIs and as many T20s.
The ODI series ended in 1-1 draw after the first match was washed away by rains.
The visitors then claimed the T20I series 3-0.
Ireland head coach Graham Ford told the Cricket Ireland website that he was looking ahead to the Zimbabwe challenge.
“I think the squad reinforced their character, toughness and commitment during the South Africa series, but there were some lessons that the players took away — very simply, we have learnt that we need to improve in all departments of the game in both formats to compete consistently at the highest level,’’ he said.
“Having access to decent training facilities for a week before the ODI series certainly helped, but the challenge in Ireland is always around getting the opportunity for preparation on good turf facilities.
“Zimbabwe have played excellent cricket recently and have a lot of players in good form at the moment, however once again we will go into the series looking to improve in all departments and not over-complicating things.
“There are few minor niggles and injuries, which are being well managed by our head physio. We are pretty confident that all will be fit and available for the series.”
Zimbabwe were beaten, the last time they visited Ireland for three ODIs.
High Performance director for Cricket Ireland, Richard Holdsworth, said they were looking forward to hosting Zimbabwe.
“There has been a great deal of behind-the-scenes work on pulling together a revised playing programme since the earlier series postponement, but thanks to the support of Provincial Unions and various hosting clubs, we have managed to create a schedule that meets the evolving requirements of health and sporting authorities, while ensuring we can still host these extremely important matches within the available window.
“In order to meet quarantining requirements in both jurisdictions, the visiting side will spend the first 10 days of their tour training and playing in the Republic under bio-secure protocols, then the two sides can then move to Northern Ireland to complete the series.
“As a consequence of this change, we have had to flip the order of the T20I and ODI series, and we will see the return of international cricket at Clontarf for the first time since May 2019.
“We would like to thank the numerous host venues for working with us on the rescheduling of this series so quickly, and look forward to welcoming the Zimbabwean team to our shores once more for what will be a highly competitive series,” said Holdsworth.
Tour itinerary
T20I series:
27 August: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 1st T20I (Clontarf, start 12pm)
29 August: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 2nd T20I (Clontarf, start 12pm)
1 September: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 3rd T20I (Bready, start 3pm)
2 September: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 4th T20I (Bready, start 3pm)
4 September: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 5th T20I (Bready, start 3pm)
Wolves match:
6 September
: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe XI — ODM (Venue TBC, start 10.30am)
World Cup Super League series:
8 September: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 1st ODI (Stormont, start 10.30am)
10 September: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 2nd ODI (Stormont, start 10.30am)
13 September: Ireland Men v Zimbabwe Men — 3rd ODI (Stormont, start 10.30am) -Herald.co.zw
