mbulelo smpofu
Brandon Moyo, brandonmalvin9@gmail.com
ZIMBABWE will be hoping to secure their first-ever one-day international (ODI) series win over Afghanistan when the two sides meet in a three-match series that gets underway at Harare Sports Club today.
The Chevrons and Afghanistan have faced off in seven bilateral ODI series dating back to 2014 with the latter winning six while one ended in a draw.
Zimbabwe and Afghanistan first played a one-day bilateral series in Bulawayo in 2014 and the four-match event ended tied at 2-2. Their next meeting was also in Bulawayo the following year and Afghanistan won 3-2.
The Asian side would go on to secure another 3-2 series win when they hosted Zimbabwe in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2016. In 2017, Afghanistan once again toured Zimbabwe for a five-match series, which they won 3-2 again.
The Chevrons made the trip to the UAE in 2018 where they were hammered 4-1 before Zimbabwe went on to register a two-run victory during the ICC World Cup Qualifiers later that year. Their last bilateral series was in Harare in 2022 where the visitors secured a 3-0 series whitewash.
Overall, between July 2014 and June 2022, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan have played 28 ODIs against each other with the Asian side enjoying a better win record.
Afghanistan have won 18 of those matches while the Chevrons have only tasted victory on 10 occasions. Zimbabwe’s last win was in 2018 during the World Cup Qualifiers.
Worthy to note is that the Chevrons have hosted Afghanistan at Harare Sports Club eight times and have only won two times with their last victory coming in 2017.
With the first game scheduled for today, the other two matches are pencilled in for Thursday and Saturday.
Zimbabwe will be hoping to dust themselves as they are coming from a 2-1 series defeat in the T20Is.
The Chevrons made three changes to the team that played against Pakistan in Bulawayo last month. There were maiden call ups for Ben Curran and Under-19 fast bowler, Newman Nyamhuri. They will also welcome back pace bowler, Victor Nyauchi.
The trio replaces Faraz Akram, Brandon Mavuta and Clive Madande, who is recovering from a dislocated shoulder.
Today’s game is scheduled to start at 09.30am.
ZIMBABWE ODI SQUAD:
Craig Ervine (captain), Brian Bennett, Ben Curran, Joylord Gumbie, Trevor Gwandu, Tinotenda Maposa, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Tashinga Musekiwa, Blessing Muzarabani, Dion Myers, Richard Ngarava, Newman Nyamhuri, Victor Nyauchi, Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams
AFGHANISTAN ODI SQUAD:
Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Rahmat Shah (VC), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Abdul Malik, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, AM Ghazanfar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Bilal Sami, Naveed Zadran and Farid Ahmad Malik
—@brandon_malvin
