Skipper Sikandar Raza believes that the upcoming T20 World Cup is a perfect chance for struggling Zimbabwe to regain its presence in the cricketing map with a clutch of strong performances. The African side has been clubbed in Group B alongside former champions Australia and Sri Lanka, and hopefuls Ireland and Oman in the ICC showpiece, beginning on February 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup is really crucial in every cricketer\u2019s life. I always think for Zimbabwe to gain more respect in world cricket, World Cups play a huge part,\u201d said Raza in an interaction facilitated by SA20 after the match between Paarl Royals against MI Cape Town here on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Raza showed his readiness for the big-ticket event, taking four wickets (4\/13) to power Royals to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over MI Cape Town.\u00a0 \u201cSo, we have the mindset to go there and try and do really well so that we can come back with our heads held high, and so that our people back home can have their heads high as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cResults are not in our hands and we don\u2019t worry about it too much. As long as we\u2019re playing a good brand of cricket and doing exactly what the game asks us to do, we\u2019ll have the result,\u201d he added. Zimbabwe will play their group matches in Sri Lanka, where pitches are expected to favour spinners, and Raza was confident that his side has the required skill set in that department.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the wickets turned out to be that (spin-friendly), then I think we have enough harmony in ourselves to have more hours of spin if we need,\u201d he said. In that context, Raza reckoned that opportunities to play in some competitive leagues such as SA20 and the just-concluded ILT20 will stand Zimbabwe players in good stead ahead of the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it certainly helps. I think the more cricket we have before the World Cup, the more match fitness and rhythm we will find ourselves in. So, it was nice to have three Zimbabweans at ILT20. Unfortunately, Blessing (Muzarabani) was supposed to be there as well, but he got injured and he was doing his rehab.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s fit now. So the more Zimbabweans that play cricket, it will be very good for the country and also going into the World Cup, it will be very useful,\u201d he explained. However, Raza braved the recent death of his younger brother Muhammad Mahdi to play in the SA20. The 13-year-old Mahidi died last Monday due to health complications. The 39-year-old said he was mentally ready to play in a high-intensity tournament despite the personal tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that part of my life will always be difficult. But I did say to my team as well, if it wasn\u2019t mentally, physically and emotionally ready, I wouldn\u2019t be here. \u201cThe fact that I think that I can add value, I\u2019ve decided to join you and I will take nothing away from you. I\u2019ll give as much as I can to the team, the energy, the experience, whatever you ask me to do, I\u2019ll do it. So yeah, it\u2019s nice to be here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
But Raza, the first Zimbabwe to play in SA20, found a deeper meaning in his presence in the fourth edition of this tournament. \u201cYeah, that\u2019s the whole idea and that\u2019s the point as well. If you look at the last few years, whenever a Zimbabwean has gone to a league and he\u2019s done well, it has certainly opened doors for more Zimbabweans as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really feel blessed by the fact that I\u2019m the first Zimbabwean (to play in SA20) and, hopefully, my performances can open the doors for other Zimbabweans as well,\u201d he said. A much sought after T20 freelancer, Raza has so far played for 37 teams across various T20 leagues, including for Punjab Kings in the IPL.<\/p>\n
Despite being the most recognisable face of Zimbabwe cricket, Raza wanted to remain a silent catalyst of change in his country\u2019s cricketing fortunes. To be honest with you, when cricket is done, I try to stay away from the limelight, from people. I just try to stay indoors. I don\u2019t like to hear or speak about myself, but if the conversations are happening, I feel very blessed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Skipper Sikandar Raza believes that the upcoming T20 World Cup is a perfect chance for struggling Zimbabwe to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[106],"class_list":{"0":"post-6672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zimbabwe","8":"tag-zimbabwe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}