AFTER a gruelling and humbling red-ball season, Zimbabwe coach Justin Sammons is looking forward to the refresher of white-ball cricket.
The team's recent two-match Test series against New Zealand concluded on Saturday with a historic low — a 2-0 whitewash capped by an innings and 359-run defeat at Queens Sports Club.
The loss was Zimbabwe's worst-ever in Test cricket, with their batsmen failing to score even 200 runs in any of their four innings.
This follows a difficult period of Test matches against England and South Africa, which also resulted in heavy defeats.
"It's not easy to say it's a relief, but it certainly is," Sammons said, acknowledging the move to a different format.
“This has been extremely, extremely difficult. I think it will be a refresher. You know, just to go into a different format. A format that we last played, when did we play Ireland in February? In terms of the ODIs, so to have two ODIs would be nice.
“And we had played a decent ODI, one international cricket, before us beating Ireland. And yeah, bring fresh blood into the group, you know. New energy is always good.
"And obviously, the shorter format naturally brings that energy in any case. So we are looking forward to it,” he said.
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Sammons sees the upcoming ODIs against Sri Lanka as a chance to bring fresh blood and new energy into the squad.
He remains optimistic that the tough experiences will ultimately benefit the team as they prepare for the T20 World Cup 2026 qualifiers, which he calls the main goal.
"That for us is the big one. And I think, you know, these tough moments do stand you in good stead. "As long as you stay motivated, like we speak about, to keep your head held high.
"You know, we've got to go out there when we're playing those qualifiers. Like New Zealand has come out against us. You know, with the same attitude. Like South Africa played us, with the same attitude. That's the attitude we've got to bring to qualifiers when we're playing lesser teams. We've got to believe and show them that they're a long way below us. You know, that's our attitude," he said.
Zimbabwe will host the regional final from September 19 to October 4, where they will compete for one of two qualification spots.
After failing to reach the Super Eights stage in the 2024 T20 World Cup, Zimbabwe was forced to play in the sub-regional qualifiers, which they won handily.
