ZIMBABWE national cricket team coach Justin Sammons has challenged his team to follow in the footsteps of Afghanistan in their development after noting a lot of potential in his first series in charge.
The former South African High Performance batting coach took charge of the Chevrons for the first time in the just-ended home T20I series against world champions, India.
India won the series 4-1, but it is the never-say-die attitude by the youthful Zimbabwean side that impressed Sammons.
“You know, international cricket is ruthless, there is no place to hide. Even if the scores have been convincing in terms of wins for India, the margins are still fine. You know, a catch here, instead of a drop, and in the second game, India are 44 for two with the previous game sort of in their mind,” Sammons said.
“And it can be a very different story. In that third game, we gave away 20 runs in the field, plus a few drop catches. And if those are taken, again, you know, that margin is tighter in terms of the end result. But there is no better test than to play against the best in the world, you know, and that shows you where you are from a skill’s level point of view.”
Zimbabwe host the 2027 World Cup together with South Africa and Namibia and with this current young generation, the team should be in good stead, according to Sammons.
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“You know, from a skill’s point of view, we have got to up it. There is no doubt about it. Both with ball, with bat, in the field. It definitely has to be an upskilling that takes part, as well as conditioning. They have got to understand the whole package and what that entails, you know, how to become or be able to compete with the best in the world,” he said.
“But looking forward, I think this T20 group’s got to look forward to 2026. I mean, you look at how well Afghanistan has done and how their improvements have been sort of exponential.
“There is no reason why this team cannot do the same, in my opinion. So that is the goal, you know. Let us see how far we can get by 2026, by 2027. The good thing is there is a lot of test cricket in the next sort of years for this group, which I think is magical. That is going to really benefit the guys going forward.”
Sammons added that it was not all gloomy and he and his technical department had somewhere to start from.
“And we are slowly starting to sort of understand how we can put that together as a T20 team. I think as a strength, definitely the energy this team is bringing, you know, they are showing real energy when they are out in the field with the bat, with the ball. Even if the skills have not quite matched it, their mindset and willingness to go out there and play, sort of be positive in their thinking has really been impressive,” he added.
“They are young, so naturally I think something that we can work with, is that energy and mindset. Yeah, from a weakness, I won’t call it a weakness. I will say an area where we can look to improve is definitely the skill. The level of skill with the ball, with the bat, in the field, it has obviously been slightly off.”
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Test squad left for Ireland yesterday.
They will play one Test match against the hosts before returning home.