Zimbabwe’s interim captain Craig Ervine has on Friday (February 21) admitted that the process of rebuilding the national team is long, but they are looking forward to carrying forward the momentum they gained from the home Test series against Sri Lanka to the Bangladesh series.
At the moment, the Zimbabwe team in Bangladesh to play the only Test, which has already got underway on Friday in Dhaka, three One Day Internationals, and two T20Is.
Zimbabwe made a fine comeback to Test cricket after a gap of 14 months, though, they lost the 2-Test series to Sri Lanka, but they stretched the matches to the final day and even managed to draw the final Test.
Well, the tourists had a great start in the one-off Test but middle-order collapse led them to 162/3 with the skipper batting at 66 against Bangladesh on day 2 in Dhaka.
Ervine said before the Dhaka Test, “We had a good series against Sri Lanka. We had two good games where both games went to the fifth days. The momentum gained from that series, we want to carry that in the Test match against Bangladesh.”
He continued, “It's a long process to rebuild. We have started the process now. You have to bring in younger players so that you can build a pool of players. It's our main goal to get back to the top. But it all starts with enough Test matches in a year and climbing that ladder.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh is struggling in the longest format of the game in recent times having registered six defeats in their last six Test matches, but Ervine insisted they are still stronger opponents at their own conditions.
He further added, “Bangladesh is having a poor run of form in Tests recently. But obviously they are the stronger opponents in their own condition. This condition is also a little bit familiar to us as we have toured here often in the past. So it is not a foreign (condition) to us. It should be a very good contest.”
Following the Bangladesh Test, Zimbabwe is expected to play their next Test in 2021 against Afghanistan and Ervine said the players will have to grab the opportunity and make the most of it since the team doesn't get enough chances to play Tests.
He signed off by saying, “We don't play many Test matches throughout the year. So any opportunity to get to play Test cricket is obviously one that we cherish.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
