A new slate, new format and a different series – Masakadza on plans for SA T20I series

Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza spoke to the media ahead of his side’s opening T20I match in the three game series against South Africa which commences on Tuesday.

On the back of a 3-0 loss in the one dayers, Masakadza said:

Obviously, [we were] very disappointing in the one days. We didn’t play as well as we could have. I thought we still left a lot in the tank there but it’s a different series now, different conditions so looking forward to it.
Definitely a new slate, a different format, so different things apply and obviously starting over again.

He did add that there were a few positives that could be carried into the shorter fomat

We’ve done a lot of good things in the one-dayers. I think the main thing is to make sure we do it for a little bit longer. We stared to look a little bit better with the bat in the last. We’re just looking to build on that and obviously longer with bat and do the right things longer with the ball.

As to how the expected match conditions to play Masakadza said:

The wind is going to be a major factor and when we got in we noticed it is much more than where we have played. So we just keep that in the back of our minds but I think the wicket normally plays very good, should be good for batting.

Zimbabwe have named a different squad from the one-day side which sees the prodigious Tarisai Musakanda in among a few changes. Masakadza sees this as an opportunity:

We’ve got five changes in total, so just a bit of mix with some of the seamers rotating out and couple of the batters coming in… So different guys coming and bringing different things to the team.

He called on his charges to keep being brave and being positive.

Coverage of the match at Buffalo Park starts at 18.00hrs local time on SuperSport.