ZIMBABWE T20I captain, Sikandar Raza, who is currently going through a lean spell in the ongoing series against Bangladesh, has admitted that he and other senior batsmen have let the team down.
Raza, who for long has literally been carrying the team on his shoulders is yet to make an impression in the series having so far recorded scores of zero, three and one in the three matches the Chevrons have played and lost.
Bangladesh have raced to a 3-0 lead and bagging the series in the process with two games to spare. The closest the Chevrons came to winning a match was in the third T20I when they went down by nine runs.
Hosts Bangladesh scored 165/5 after being put to bat first, while the visitors perished on 156/9 at the end of their 20 overs.
Raza, the mercurial Chevrons skipper who made it into the ICC Men's global T20I squad for 2023, reflected on his performance so far in the series and the bearing it has had on the team's performance.
“We did fight well, but the fact is that the top five including myself haven't done well. We needed to support (Tadiwanashe) Marumani and we could have chased it down,” Raza said.
“A lot of runs have come from the lower order, they've been working hard, but the results need to come.”
Runs for Zimbabwe in this series have been coming from such young players as Clive Madande, Wellington Masakadza, Jonathan Campbell, Brian Bennett and Faraz Akram. This is a cause for concern for Raza and interim coach Stuart Matsikenyeri given that had at least two of the senior players chipped in at any given stage results could have been different.
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“We have several youngsters whom we're grooming, it's not easy for them to come to Bangladesh and do well,” noted Raza.
“Mistakes have happened, but I'm okay with them. Those three youngsters put up their hands (Akram, Campbell and Marumani), and they brought us close and I thought we might win at one point. They've been a lot of positives and I'm really happy for them, but it's the top order which needs to deliver for us.”
The top order has also been on top of coach Matsikenyeri’s list of worries and Raza would not have said it any better as the leader of the pack.
“A little bit better, but largely still disappointing because we haven't played to the standard that we expect ourselves to. We still know that if we reach anywhere close to our standard, performance wise, that way we will be competitive and will give ourselves an opportunity to win the game,” Matsikenyeri said.
“All the shortcomings, the midfields, dropped catches, loose deliveries all need cleaning up. But, it is mainly obviously the top order batting or maybe call it the core of the batting that we need to make more meaningful contributions so that we put ourselves in positions of winning games.”
Zimbabwe are in Mirpur this morning for the fourth T20I against the hosts.
