Zimbabwe Cricket Team will Play with Australia and Pakistan

ZIMBABWE will get two more chances to fine-tune their squad ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament in the West Indies when they play Australia and Pakistan in warm-up matches.
Zimbabwe play Australia in St Lucia today and defending champions Pakistan on Thursday after a largely disappointing pre-tournament tour that saw them losing twice to the West Indies A side.

Coach Alan Butcher and his charges face stronger oppositions that would accurately gauge their preparedness and their capacity with only one week left before playing their first game of the tournament.

Unlike the West Indies A, Australia -- whom they face today -- will provide them with the kind of competition they should expect in the group stages.
Zimbabwe are in Group B with last year's finalists Sri Lanka and New Zealand, who surprisingly are seeded eighth at the tournament.Australia, who have struggled to impress at previous World Twenty20 tournaments, have declared that they would want to take the warm-up matches seriously in the build-up to this year's edition.

Just three years back they suffered a shock defeat at the hands of a youthful Zimbabwe outfit despite being one of the tournament favourites. But Australia has had a successful 2009-10 season and captain Michael Clarke said his squad is ready to replicate that form at the 2010 World Twenty20.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe have struggled to impress, winning only one Twenty20 match against West Indies in their first tour of the Caribbean.

Zimbabwe's feeble batting has been their major weakness as the players are finding it difficult to put enough runs on the board. They unsuccessfully had to defend low totals in the two matches against an average West Indies side. After losing the first match by six wickets, much was expected from the best of the Zimbabwe line-up comprising Hamilton Masakadza, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Brendan Taylor and Tatenda Taibu in the top order.

But the team could only manage 124 runs in the second match, which they lost by four wickets on Sunday.
Masakadza and Chibhabha had a promising start contributing 56 runs for the first wicket but Zimbabwe lost the last four wickets for a paltry nine runs. Bowler Shane Shillingford inflicted a lot of damage to the Zimbabwe side claiming four wickets before the hosts cruised to 129/7 with nine balls remaining.
Zimbabwe, however, step up their preparations today when they face the pace of such players as Bret Lee, Shaun Tait, and Mitchell Johnson with the inconsistency of the batting order again coming under close scrutiny.