HARARE – Zimbabwe national cricket captain Prosper Utseya (pictured)hopes his side will dig deep into their reserves to upstage Bangladesh in the five One Day International series set for August 7-19, at Bulawayo’s Queens Sports Club.
Zimbabwe face Bangladesh or the Tigers, as they known, after a six-month drought of international action, having last played Kenya in February.
Utseya acknowledged that the lack of international experience will continue to handicap the southern Africans but hoped their participation in the local league will give them the much needed match fitness.
“Of course we are lacking international experience but we have been playing a lot of competitive local games in the Logan Cup and also the Twenty20 and that should help us in match fitness,” said Utseya.
“This is our second net session in the 2009/2010 season and the boys look fit for the match. By next week (this week) we will be starting training more as a team and we have enough time to work on different areas of the game.”
Queens Sports Club has not been a favourite hunting ground for Zimbabwe. Statistics show that they have in recent years won more matches at Harare Sports Club than Queens, in Bulawayo. While recognising that the Bulawayo wicket has not been favorable to the team, Utseya pointed out that “we won most of our games here at Harare Sports Club because most of the players are from Harare and are accustomed to the wicket here”
Asked whether he was not worried of being visitors on their own pitch when they take on Bangladesh at Queens in all the five matches, Utseya told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that it will be an advantage to play the Tigers there.
“The ball turns as much at Queens and it will be better for us to play their (Bangladesh) spinners there,” he said.
The Zimbabwe skipper, who was part of the 2004-2005 side that used to give Bangladesh torrid times on the crease, said he did not envy the Tigers, who have since moved one place ahead of Zimbabwe on the International Cricket Council rankings. Bangladesh is ranked number eight ahead of ninth placed Zimbabwe.
“Bangladesh’s structures have produced a wide base of players for national team selection; unlike us they haven’t lost a number of players to other countries. That has been our biggest challenge; I think we have lost about three teams in a space of four years. They have greatly improved and gained the much needed experience as a team,” said the off-spinner.
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