With the dry track at Bulawayo’s Queens Sports Club likely to assist the spinners, Windies is relying on the reverse swing to make inroads in the first Test against Zimbabwe, starting Saturday (October 21).
The way Zimbabwe had performed in their last Test in spin-friendly conditions of Sri Lanka, Windies, who have struggled to play spin in recent years, will have their task cut out against the hosts and to not allow Graeme Cremer & Co. pile up a big total.
The visitors will be relying on their speedsters Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel to extract reverse swing and make life difficult for the home side.
Speaking ahead of the game, Windies captain Jason Holder said he is expecting ‘some reverse swing’ in the dry conditions.
“With the Kookaburra balls, reverse swing is always a factor,” he said on Friday (October 20). “They tend to reverse earlier than most and go a bit softer. I would expect some reverse swing in these dry conditions. The square looks pretty decent, but you never know what to expect.”
With Tendai Chatara injured and Carl Mumba recovering from the knee surgery, Zimbabwe’s pace attack does not wear a formidable look although Kyle Jarvis is set to play for them for the first time since 2013 and Chris Mpofu is likely to partner him. So it is quite clear that the hosts will be relying heavily on their spinners and Windies are well aware of it.
“Look at the team Zimbabwe have picked, they’ve got six players who can bowl spin,” head coach Stuart Law said. “With the characteristics of this ground and two Tests at the same ground, it does favour spin bowling more than medium pace bowling. Having said that, we’ve got two or three guys who can crank it up to over 90mph and that pace it doesn’t really matter where you play, it’s hard to bat against.”
Law further said that the tour of England where Windies defeated the hosts in one of the three Tests had put the side in ‘really good stead’ and hoped that the batsmen would do well.
“Coming from England to here puts us in really good stead. There is a lot more movement in England, and our batsmen had to make improvements to their techniques to be successful there, and I think that’s something that will help them in any conditions around the world,” he said.