Zimbabwe ready to deal with pressures

Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura says his side is ready to accept the favourites tag for the upcoming ODI series against Ireland, starting in Harare on Friday.
The African side, who will play three ODIs against the Irish, will go into the series as favourites a they have more experienced players and are playing at home.
Zimbabwe are not accustomed to wearing the favourites tag, usually being the underdog in almost all their matches, but Chigumbura feels they can deal with the different pressures.
The Zimbabwe captain said: "When we go out there we want to win every game that we play. We've got more expectation on us to win these games against Ireland, so obviously there's a little more pressure on us.
"So we have to rise to the occasion. It's an important series for us. I'm sure if we play our best cricket we'll come out on top. We've been looking forward to this series. It's going to be hard cricket."
Zimbabwe also find themselves in the unfamiliar position of having to manage player workloads as they have had a decent amount of cricket over the last few months.
The Southern African team have played India, New Zealand and faced Pakistan as recently as last week , while Afghanistan are already in the country ahead of their ODI series after Ireland.
On managing workloads, Chigumbura said: "We had a day off after Pakistan. There's lots of cricket, especially this month, but that's what we've been asking for for a long time: to have more games.
"Now we've got them so we just have to make sure that we deal well with the short breaks that we've got in between."
Latest
-
News
Cricket in line to receive significant chunk of £300m sports recovery package
The England and Wales Cricket Board welcomed the support, describing it as “a lifeline for parts of the game”.
-
News
Marcus Trescothick relishing return to ‘special environment’ with England
Trescothick is England’s new batting coach.
-
News
Jack Leach feels here to stay after establishing himself as top England spinner
Leach made his debut almost three years ago in New Zealand but had made only 10 appearances before the turn of the year.
-
News
Kevin O’Brien says century against England helped Ireland ‘reach for the stars’
O’Brien hit a 50-ball 113 as Ireland chased down a target of 328 in the 2011 World Cup.
-
News
Ian Harvey is Gloucestershire interim coach after Richard Dawson joins England
Dawson has accepted the position of ECB elite pathway coach
-
News
Marcus Trescothick, Jon Lewis and Jeetan Patel join England’s coaching staff
Trescothick has left his assistant’s role at Somerset.
-
News
Ben Foakes focuses on squaring the series with England
The tourists are 2-1 down going into the final Test against India.
-
News
Stonewall praises Steven Davies and warns ‘attitudes need to shift across sport’
The 34-year-old wicketkeeper announced he was gay 10 years ago.
-
News
Charlotte Edwards backs women’s cricket to keep ‘growing and growing’
On Thursday Edwards became the first female president of the Professional Cricketers’ Association.
-
News
Heather Knight ‘frustrated’ as England lose final ODI in New Zealand
Defeat ended a run of 10 straight wins across all formats for England