Zimbabwe vs Pakistan – 1st Test Preview & Prediction
THE FACTS
When is Zimbabwe vs Pakistan taking place? Thursday, April 29th, 2021 – 08:30 (UK)
Where is Zimbabwe vs Pakistan taking place? Harare Sports Club
What is the expected weather for Zimbabwe vs Pakistan? 21-28c with sunshine and cloudy intervals forecast on the whole with a risk of rain over the weekend
What channel is Zimbabwe vs Pakistan on? The match will be televised live on FreeSports
Where can I stream Zimbabwe vs Pakistan? Premier Sport subscribers can stream the match live via Premier Player
LAST MEETING
Zimbabwe beat Pakistan by 24 runs
THE TEAM NEWS
ZIMBABWE
- Zimbabwe meet Pakistan in a two-game Test series for the first time since 2013 and they will be hoping to build on their recent 1-1 series with Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi and confidence will be reasonably after they competed well in the T20s.
- Brendan Taylor is available and he along with skipper Sean Williams will be vital members of what is otherwise a relatively inexperienced 16-man squad that have five potential debutants and is missing Sikandar Raza and Craig Ervine through injury.
- After his excellent performances in the T20s where he took nine wickets, Luke Jongwe is called up for the first time and is joined by the uncapped Richard Ngarava, Roy Kaia, Milton Shumba and Tanaka Chivanga.
PAKISTAN
- After a difficult series in New Zealand over Christmas and the New Year, Pakistan beat South Africa 2-0 in a rare home series in Jan/Feb so they will be confident coming into this two-game series with Zimbabwe in Harare.
- Unlike the shorter formats of the game, this Pakistan team have major issues at the top of the order as Imran Butt and Abid Ali struggled badly against South Africa and the likelihood is that they go with a different opening combination for this series.
- The middle order remains incredibly strong with Fawad Alam, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Azhar Ali while the bowling attack led by Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hassan Ali but they are without the injured Yasir Shah which is a blow.
THE PREDICTION
Zimbabwe unexpectedly pushed Pakistan all the way in the T20s before narrowly losing the decider and they will hope to play just as well as they move on to the Test series. The hosts look somewhat under-strength but as the T20 showed, they have some emerging talent and they will hope they can catch Pakistan cold. The tourists will know they cannot rest on their laurels but their Test team has looked strong in recent games. They should simply have too much quality with bat and ball for the home side so expect a comprehensive victory for the touring side.
