Zimbabwe bank on the experience of Raza, Taylor and Cremer

vs Oman in Colombo, February 9
vs Australia in Colombo, February 13
vs Ireland in Pallekele, February 17
vs Sri Lanka in Colombo, February 19

Zimbabwe are back at a World Cup after 2022, having failed to qualify for the 2023 ODI tournament and as the only Full Member to miss out on the 2024 T20 World Cup. Their most pressing task of late was simply ensuring they have a seat at the table. Now that they have done that, Zimbabwe have to turn their attention to how they will occupy their spot especially as newer Full Members, Afghanistan in particular, and even some Associates continue to outperform them.

The last time Zimbabwe participated in this tournament, the format was different and they did reasonably well. In Australia, Zimbabwe progressed from the first round to the Super 12s, where they lost to two teams they would consider as being on a similar standing to them - Bangladesh and Netherlands. This time, Zimbabwe have been grouped alongside two former champions, Australia and Sri Lanka, which means moving to the Super Eights could be a bridge too far but Zimbabwe would see beating Oman and Ireland as a minimum requirement.

To do that, they will need to find runs from batters other than the known names - Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor - and more recently, Brian Bennett, and will hope their balanced bowling attack performs well. In Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans, they have pace, swing and variation, and a spin contingent that includes offspin (Raza), left-arm spin (Wellington Masakadza) and legspin (Graeme Cremer and Ryan Burl) will give them a good chance.

Zimbabwe sailed through qualification where they won all five matches, including the final against Namibia, but results against bigger teams have been poor. They lost all four matches in a home tri-series involving South Africa and New Zealand in July 2025 and were blanked 3-0 at home by Afghanistan after that. A positive is that they have two recent wins over Sri Lanka - one at home and one in Rawalpindi - and they will take confidence into their group game against the co-hosts. Perhaps most concerning is that Zimbabwe haven't played any cricket for the last two months and enter the tournament cold.

Brian Bennett is a prodigious talent, who has at least one century in each format in international cricket and was the leading run-scorer in the Africa Region Qualifiers. Zimbabwe's line-up will depend heavily on him to get them off to good starts, especially as he is known for his aggressive approach at the top of the order. Bennett has T20I strike rate of 145.48 and has already scored nine fifties in 52 matches.

The only Zimbabwean player engaged in competitive action over the last month was Sikandar Raza, who was part of the Paarl Royals outfit at SA20. Raza arrived two matches into the tournament after a stint at the ILT20 and grieving the loss of his younger brother, but he put his emotions to one side to finish as the third-highest wicket-taker at the tournament, where he was particularly effective on the slow turners at Boland Park. Raza is a player for the big occasion and there's no bigger stage than a World Cup.

Raza and veteran returnees Taylor and Cremer are all 39 - and Taylor will turn 40 the day before the tournament starts - and are understood to be eyeing the home ODI World Cup in 2027 as a swansong. For now, they form the backbone of the Zimbabwe side where almost half the contingent has previous World Cup experience: Burl, Muzarabani, Ngravara and Masakadza are the other three players to have appeared at a T20 World Cup.

1 Brian Bennett, 2 Tadiwanashe Marumani, 3 Dion Myers, 4 Brendan Taylor (wk), 5 Sikandar Raza (capt), 6 Ryan Burl, 7 Graeme Cremer, 8 Brad Evans, 9 Wellington Masakadza, 10 Blessing Muzarabani, 11 Richard Ngarava