AFTER their poor display against the Richelieu Eagles in the recently ended Castle Lite T20I series, the Chevrons will face Namibi at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualier to be held on 22 November.
The Chevrons suffered a humiliating 3-2 series defeat at the hands of Namibia early this week and will be looking to booking a place to next year’s T20 World Cup.
Zimbabwe’s opening match against the Richelieu Eagles will take place at the Wanderers Cricket Ground in the Namibian capital of Windhoek. Namibia is hosting the qualification tournament which runs from 20 November to 1 December.
The Chevrons and Namibia are the two favourites to win the regional qualifier and proceed to the 20 team T20 World Cup next year.
After the game against Namibia, the Chevrons will go on to face Uganda on the following day on 23 November at United Ground before going on to play against Tanzania the following day at Wanderers. After the three consecutive matches, the Chevrons will be on a three day break.
They will resume their matches on 27 November when they will be up against Rwanda at the Wanderers before going on to face Nigeria on the following day at the same venue. Their last round robin match of the tournament will be against Kenya on 30 November at United Ground.
A total of seven African teams will compete for the two available slots to the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup which will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
The Chevrons and the tournament hosts, Namibia did not participate in the Sub-Regional Qualifiers which five of their opponents played in.
Zimbabwe missed out on direct qualification to the World Cup after failing to make the top eight in the previous edition of the tournament which was held in Australia last year. A total of 12 teams have already secured their spots and they are the hosts, West Indies and USA, England, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Chevrons
Bangladesh and Netherlands qualified automatically as the best-ranked teams in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20I Team Rankings as of 14 November 2022.
The 20 teams in the World Cup will be divided into four groups of five from which the top two teams in each group advance to the Super Eight round.
The upcoming qualification tournament will be the perfect opportunity for the Chevrons to put past them the failure to qualify for the ongoing One Day International (ODI) World Cup which they are missing for the second time in a row and also their uninspiring series defeat against Namibia.
Last year, Zimbabwe ended a six-year wait to take part in a major international event after qualifying for the T20 World Cup and went on to reach the Super 12 stage for the first time.
Playing and winning the upcoming qualifiers will be a big confidence booster in the Chevrons camp.
Zimbabwe T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier Schedule:
Namibia vs Zimbabwe (22 November), Uganda vs Zimbabwe (23 November), Tanzania vs Zimbabwe (24 November), Rwanda vs Zimbabwe (27 November),
Nigeria vs Zimbabwe (28 November), Kenya vs Zimbabwe (30 November).
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