Streak: We are underdogs in tri-series

Zimbabwe coach Heath Streak has conceded that his team will be underdogs in the ODI tri-series in Bangladesh, which will also include Sri Lanka.

The Africa side play the opening game of the tournament against the hosts in Mirpur on Monday and go into the clash as the lowest-ranked side out of the three.

Zimbabwe are ranked in tenth place in the latest ICC ODI rankings with Bangladesh in seventh and Sri Lanka in eighth.

Streak, however, feels his team can take a lot of confidence from their ODI series win in Sri Lanka in July last year – their first series success in Sri Lanka in any format.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Streak said: “I think we still have a long way to go. We are the underdogs in this series. But I still feel that we have got the quality of players we need to take Zimbabwe cricket forward.

“We showed against Sri Lanka last year that we can compete against other countries outside our home territory. It was very pleasing but we have a long way to go as a team.

“[The Sri Lanka ODI series win] will give us the belief and the confidence to compete. We haven’t played a lot of one-day cricket of late. We have played more Tests while SL have played 13 ODIs since we last played them.

“We haven’t played any. We have prepared well and hopefully we can get into the series as quickly as possible and then get some good results early on.

“I feel we have the players with the skills, and give them Sri Lanka and Bangladesh a good challenge. I know our team is capable of winning.”

Zimbabwe are using the tri-series as preparation for the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, which they will host in March this year.