ZIMBABWE national women’s cricket team coach, Adam Chifo, yesterday said the Lady Chevrons were excited ahead of their first official One Day International series.
It gets underway on Tuesday against the visiting Ireland women’s team.
The locals, still basking in the glory of winning the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier, returned into camp yesterday, to prepare for the upcoming four-match series.
Chifo told The Herald on Saturday the home players were keen for the ground-breaking series against the Irish.
The teams will play four ODIs at Harare Sports Club. The Lady Chevrons were granted ODI status, by the International Cricket Council, in April this year.
They have been waiting for the historic moment, when they will play their first official ODI games.
“We are excited to be playing our first ODI, something we have been looking forward to, for a long time,” said Chifo.
The tour precedes the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Global Qualifier, to be held in Zimbabwe, next month.
Both teams believe the four match-series will go a long way in preparing them for the competition. The Zimbabwe women, who were hard hit by Covid-19 last year following the cancellation of their fixtures, have had a decent schedule this year.
They hosted the South Africa Emerging side, Thailand and briefly Pakistan.
They had a successful campaign, in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier, in Botswana.
Zimbabwe won the tournament and will represent Africa in the final global qualifiers next year.
The players returned to camp yesterday, after they had been given one week off to recover from the hectic schedule, which saw them play seven matches inside 10 days.
“We needed some time off cricket so we could re-energise and come back with fresh minds. “The past month was packed with so much cricket and most of the ladies have never played so much cricket, in such a short space of time, in their careers.
“Our training camp is going to be short, so that we can accommodate the hectic schedule ahead.
“Remember, we will also be playing Bangladesh just before the qualifiers, so it will be taxing both physically and mentally, with the bubble concept in use,” said Chifo.
Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, the recent T20 Qualifier in Botswana also claimed some victims with Chipo Mugeri and Christabel Chatonzwa set to miss the upcoming ODI series, due to injuries.
“We are, obviously, going to make some replacements,” the coach said.
“We will have some additions to the squad. Ireland will give us the much-needed game time as we prepare for the ODI qualifiers, coming up next month.”
The Irish women’s cricket side were expected to land in Zimbabwe yesterday.