Zimbabwe bat on Brendan Taylor's Test return

Brendan Taylor, at the age of 39, returned to international cricket after completing a three-and-half-year ban for breaching the ICC's anti-corruption code in 2021. Taylor's ban ended on July 25 this year, he was added to Zimbabwe's Test squad to play New Zealand last week, and named in the starting XI for the second match in Bulawayo to complete one of cricket's most notable comebacks.

Opening batter Ben Curran, who returned from a broken hand last week, had to make way for Taylor, who has only opened six times before in Tests. Taylor is most successful at No.4 but Zimbabwe opted to retain their significant experience in the middle in the form of Sean Williams, Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza, and asked Taylor to face the new ball as they hope to make good on Ervine's decision to bat first on a dry surface at Queens.

Zimbabwe made one other change to the XI that lost to New Zealand in the first match. Nineteen-year old Newman Nyamhuri was left out for Trevor Gwandu, who will play his third Test.

New Zealand have an entirely new-look attack after a spate of injuries hit their camp between games. Nathan Smith and Will O'Rourke were both ruled out with injury and Michael Bracewell is at the Hundred which allowed New Zealand to hand out three debuts. Seamers Jacob Duffy, Matthew Fisher and Zakary Foulkes, who was part of the T20I series, were all given their first opportunity in Tests. With Tom Latham unavailable due to a shoulder problem, New Zealand's batting line-up was unchanged.

New Zealand lead the two-match series 1-0. Zimbabwe have not won a Test at home this year and last won in Bulawayo in 2001.

Zimbabwe: 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Brendan Taylor, 3 Nick Welch, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Craig Ervine (capt), 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Tafadzwa Tsiga (wk), 8 Vincent Masekesa, 9 Blessing Muzarabani, 10 Trevor Gwandu 11 Tanaka Chivanga

New Zealand: 1 Will Young, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Henry Nicholls, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Jacob Duffy 9 Zakary Foulkes, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Matthew Fisher