THE Zimbabwe women’s cricket team will today wrap up their preparations for the historic women’s one-day and Twenty20 international series against Pakistan that gets underway in Harare tomorrow.
The series, which marks the end of Zimbabwe’s two-year hiatus from international cricket, will be played behind closed doors at Harare Sports Club, in line with the coronavirus lockdown measures.
Zimbabwe Cricket have said the tour will be streamed live on YouTube.
The hosts have been locked in a training camp, for the past week, and they upped their preparations at the weekend when they named their final squad, led by their captain, Mary-Anne Musonda.
The side is backed by experienced hands that include Precious Marange, Modester Mupachikwa, Josephine Nkomo, Ashley Ndiraya, Tasmeen Granger and Nomvelo Sibanda.
But, conspicuous by their absence from the squad are veteran campaigners Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano and Nomatter Mutasa, who are both expecting.
The foreign-based duo of Anesu Mushangwe and Sharne Mayers have also been omitted as they are currently playing cricket in Australia and South Africa.
Their absence has opened up opportunities for Francesca Chipare and Kellies Ndlovu — the only one in the squad yet to play some form of international cricket.
The pair has been rewarded for their impressive performances during the recent inter-provincial women’s competitions.
Christabel Chatonzwa and Esther Mbofana, who were not part of the last women’s side to represent Zimbabwe in international cricket back in May 2019, have made the cut this time round.
Zimbabwe and Pakistan women, who have never faced each other in a bilateral series before, will get the ball rolling tomorrow.
The other two 50-over matches are pencilled in for this Thursday and Sunday.
The T20I matches will be played next week.
All the games will be at Harare Sports Club where stringent Covid-19 protocols are in place as part of a bio-secure bubble set up for the tour.
“The series brings the much-needed game time at International level that we have not had in a very long while.
“This is quite a huge break for us, so we are very excited about this tour,” said Zimbabwe’s team manager, Carol Nyamande.
The teams are using the tour as part of their preparations for the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021.
The qualifying tournament will feature 10 teams and will be held in June and July.
The top three teams from the event will progress to the 50-over ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the preparations for the men’s team for the tour of Afghanistan are also gathering pace.
A squad of 32 players is in camp in preparation for their first series of the year in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in March.
The players have been having net sessions at Old Hararians and will, from today, start playing practice matches that will be used to select the final squad to travel to the UAE.
Zimbabwe and Afghanistan will meet in two Tests and three T20Is, with the matches to take place from March 2 to 20.
Zimbabwe Women’s Squad
Mary-Anne Musonda (captain), Ashley Ndiraya, Precious Marange, Pelajia Mujaji, Chiedza Dhururu, Modester Mupachikwa, Kellies Ndlovu, Tasmeen Granger, Esther Mbofana, Francesca Chipare, Loryn Phiri, Nomvelo Sibanda, Josephine Nkomo, Audrey Mazvishaya, Christabel Chatonzwa-chronicle.cl.zw
