The Zimbabwe Men’s Cricket (Chevrons) supporters are going to shift their focus to the U19 team following the U19 World Cup 2024 which is set to take place from the 19th of January in South Africa.

The chevrons have been disappointing to the supporters on numerous occasions like when they failed to qualify for the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 after losing their must-win match against Scotland and failing to qualify for the ICC T2OI World Cup in Namibia.

The team has been displaying a bad performance since then as it lost against Ireland in three One Day International series and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches.

The Chevrons went on to play against Sri Lanka in Colombo stadium which saw the first ODI cancelled due to the rains. During the second ODI, Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by 2 wickets despite the efforts by the team to win the game.

They are to play their remaining match this Thursday.  The Zim U19 team qualified for the World Cup at the World Cup Qualifiers in May 2023 in Rwanda after attaining five wins.

Zimbabwe has not won any World Cup before and is hoping for the best this time around in the U19 World Cup matches. The U19 Zimbabwe Cricket Coach Prosper Utseya said they are well prepared this time around, unlike their last World Cup where their preparations were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I am expecting better performance from the boys. Our target for now is to go past the group stage and then we can start focusing on the quarter finals.
The U19 team has been playing a few matches against Ireland which has given them insight and helped them in their preparations.

The squad that will be going for the World Cup 2024 include Matthew Schoken as captain, Munashe Chimusoro, Shaun Dzakatire, Kohl Eksteen, Panashe Gwatiringa, Nathaniel Hlabangana, Anesu Kamuriwo, Ryan Kamwemba, Campbell Macmillan, Newman Nyamhuri, Ronak Patel, Mashford Shungu, Brandon Sunguro, Calton Takawira and Panashe Taruvinga.

“Our performances against Ireland gave us an indication of where we are. We ticked more boxes and that’s a positive,” said Utseya.