The Sunday Mail
FORMER Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura finds himself in the last chance saloon ahead of next month’s ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup.
As the Chevrons left for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Friday for a World Cup qualifying tournament, convener of selectors Kenyon Zeihl warned that the 29-year-old risks getting dropped unless he begins bowling like he used to and coming up with big match innings.
“Elton is a good player and we all know that. Yes, he is out of form, and we know that too, but we selected him because we need his experience and are well aware of what he can do when his game is on,” said Ziehl.
“What we have done now is explain to him what is required of him and that is to bowl and start chipping in with the runs. That’s his position in the team, the all-rounder, and he has to start delivering.”
Having relinquished the captaincy to Hamilton Masakadza, expectations are that Chigumbura will start delivering with both bat and ball.
“When he has been captain, his form dipped and rebounded when he gave up the captaincy.
Now he is no longer captain, and it is the time for him to deliver,” said Ziehl.
Chigumbura’s flirtation with the national team captaincy is a subject of a never-ending debate in Zimbabwean cricketing circles.
One theory is that the burden of leading the team has often been too much for him. Others believe that it is his well-documented history with injuries that has prevented him from reaching full potential.
However, one undeniable fact is that his 569 runs from 14 Tests and 4 179 runs from 199 One-day Internationals do not do justice to the natural talent he possesses and the 12 years of international cricket under his belt.
As far as the captaincy issue goes, he led the team twice with his first stint, a brief one, coming in 2010 and his second in the 2015/2016 season.
He took charge of 50 ODIs and only won 15 matches, translating to a paltry 30 percent success rate.
Now with ICC T20 World Cup coming and the captaincy burden off his shoulders, Chigumbura will be under the microscope again.
The emergence of Luke Jongwe has compounded his woes.
Already the youngster has 25 ODI wickets and 236 runs to his name and looks poised to replace Chigumbura in the not too distant future.
Jongwe hasn’t played a lot of T20 cricket, with only 60 runs and seven wickets from eight games, but Ziehl and his panel are pretty optimistic about the Matebeleland Tuskers man.
“If Chigumbura continues with his current form, we have got Luke Jongwe. Here is a young player with all the potential to take up the role of the team’s all-rounder.
“He will be Elton’s understudy at the World Cup and hopefully put some pressure on him to perform. We have given Chigumbura countless opportunities to improve, and now need to see him come on the big stage and produce some match winning runs,” he said.
Zimbabwe squad for T20 World Cup
Hamilton Masakadza (capt), Sean Williams, Tendai Chatara, Wellington Masakadza, Tinashe Panyangara, Peter Moor, Elton Chigumbura, Sikandar Raza, Richmond Mutumbami (wk), Luke Jongwe, Tendai Chisoro, Neville Madziva, Malcolm Waller, Vusi Sibanda, Graeme Cremer
Stand-by: Donald Tiripano
