ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 Teams & Players

zimbabwe team profile

Zimbabwe is appearing in its eighth ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, having won the Plate final in 2002 against Nepal. The team has never progressed past the 5th place playoff, which it reached in 2006. Two years later, the team finished fourteenth, and in 2010 it finished thirteenth. The young squad will be hoping to improve on this performance in Australia this year.

Zimbabwe U19s has not played much international cricket since the 2010 tournament, with a five match ODI series against South Africa in January 2011, and a Tri-Nation series with South Africa and Pakistan 12 months later. Zimbabwe did not win a match at either tournament, though a number of its players did score half centuries in 2011: Kudzai Sauramba, Kevin Kasuza, Matthew Bentley and Brian Chari.

Zimbabwe will be hoping that this lack of competition as a team unit, and against a range of international teams, will not hamper its efforts as it faces the pressure of playing an international event far from home.

However, while Zimbabwe has been placed in a tough group, the team has never played against India in the tournament. With good records against Papua New Guinea and West Indies, the team will be hopeful of moving into the final eight. It can also look to its most successful predecessors, the 2006 team that still holds the tournament record for the highest seventh-wicket partnership, with Ryan Higgins and Glenn Querl combining to score 96 against Nepal. A number of previous U19 players have also gone on to captain the national team, including Tatenda Taibu, Prosper Utseya, Brendan Taylor, Elton Chigumbura and Hamilton Masakadza.