Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza admitted they made a lot of mistakes in the field, which led to their downfall in the five-match T20I series against India. The hosts were not up to the mark in the field as they dropped a lot of catches throughout the series.
The home team registered a thrilling win of 13 runs in the opening game of the series but veered off the track in the next four games, to lose the series by 4-1.
India won the fifth and final T20I of the series by 42 runs at the Harare Sports Club, Harare on Sunday. Raza also admitted that they were below par with the bat as they were skittled out for 125 while chasing 168 in the final game.
The hosts failed to come up with consistent performances and their batting order could not get the job done despite known conditions.
Speaking on the positives from the series, Raza showered praise on Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava. Muzarabani returned with impressive figures of 2-19 whereas Ngarava bagged 1-29 in the last game. Muzarabani impressed throughout the series as he scalped six wickets in five matches at an average of 19.33 and an economy rate of 6.00.
Sikandar Raza said in the post-match presentation, “I thought Blessing bowled well the whole series. Batting-wise, we are still below-par, but we are starting to rectify the problems at the top. You are going to have bad games here and there. The grey area for me will remain our attitude in the field, we are still making a lot of mistakes, that’s controllable, we are going to keep working hard and hopefully keep getting better. It was unfortunate that Richie (Ngarava) wasn’t fit at the start of the series. Had he been declared fit, he was gonna play all the games. To have him fit is certainly a blessing because we all know his quality. To have Richie and Blessing … every time I was in trouble I looked up to them and they did the job for the team, really happy for those two boys.”
Raza said it is crucial for him to manage his workload and also spoke about his future with the national team. The all-rounder said he will go back to the domestic circuit to get more game time under his belt.
Raza concluded, “My workload needs to be managed. I haven’t played any four-day cricket in the last two years after my surgeries. My shoulder isn’t 100%, I don’t want to be a guy who just gets a jersey. I need to go back, respect my domestic cricket, and also respect my domestic cricketers who have put in a lot of runs. I will go back to play domestic cricket and test my own fitness. I am still available for Test match cricket but at this point of time, I am not because I haven’t played a lot of four-day cricket. I’ll leave for Manchester for The Hundred in a few days time, I am looking forward to that.”
