Zimbabwe plans to tear Bangladesh apart through spin
Photo - BCB
||CF Correspondent||
Zimbabwe have no well reputed and experienced spinners at their disposal at the moment with two specialist spinners—Brandon Mavuta and Wellington Masakadza playing their first Test match. The likes of Sikandar raza, Sean Williams can be handy but they aren’t out and out specialist spinners. Nonetheless, Zimbabwe plan to outsmart Bangladesh through spin, predicting the fourth day pitch itself would offer turn and bounce in abundance.
Zimbabwe coach Lalchand Rajput wants his spinners to come in action as they are in advantageous position to win their first Test since the victory against Pakistan at Harare in 2013.
The visitors also have the cushion of 295 that Bangladesh still require to win after reaching 26 for no loss on day three.
Fast bowlers were key in Zimbabwe’s 139 runs lead in the first innings and now Rajput said it’s the turn of spinners, since the surface started favouring them.
“It’s always difficult to chase a total on the fourth day especially, and the last ball was very encouraging (when Sikandar Raza produced a leg-before chance against Liton Das).
“So hopefully we try and bowl well tomorrow morning, and we’ve got to take the catches. As you know, catches win matches because there will be a lot of catchers around the bat. So hopefully we have a good fielding and bowling session t
“We will be having a combination of medium pace and spinners, but the bulk of the bowling will be done by the spinners, because we’ve seen that the wicket is helping the spinners,” said Zimbabwe’s Indian coach.
“We have to mix it up and find the balance. In the first innings, the seamers bowled really well, so we were hoping that we would get one or two wickets with the new ball. But that’s not the case always, so we will have to bowl well tomorrow. There will be more emphasis on the spinners and hopefully the spinners will oblige.”
While there was big expectation on debutant Brandon Mavuta following his fantastic form in ODI series against South Africa, he is yet to live up to the expectation.
Rajput however kept faith on him, saying, “Legspinners are wicket-taking bowlers, but they give you loose balls as well. We are expecting that he will do the job for the team. He did bowl exceptionally well in South Africa in the one-dayers, though that’s the one-day format. Legspinners are always wicket taking bowlers, and hopefully he’ll get that rhythm tomorrow.”
