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So the Zimbabwe - Bangladesh series is now over, and both sides will be carrying out their post-mortem on how they performed. Bangladesh, after their pre-series confidence and predictions of a whitewash, will be licking their wounds and hoping for better results in Kenya, while if anything Zimbabwe will be disappointed not to have won the series 4-1, after being thwarted by a spectacular batting collapse in the final match. With the current Zimbabwe side being assumed by many to be a 3rd-string option after the departure of many leading players, it's worth doing a little bit of "compare and contrast" with the last series the two teams played in Zimbabwe, in 2004 - which was also the last series where Zimbabwe fielded a "full-strength" side, as the removal of Heath Streak as captain at the end of that series led to the first player strike and the beginning of Zim's current woes. Read on below the cut for the details.

Only two members of the current Zimbabwe side played in the 2004 series - Stuart Matsikenyeri and Blessing Mawhire - and neither of them really played a significant part, as they were both fairly new to the Zimbabwe side at that point. Statistics never tell the full story as they don't speak of the drama of the matches themselves, but they are the figures on which the final outcomes depend. Batting figures first, and a look at the top 5 performers for Zim from each series. Remember that 2 games from the 2004 series were washed out, so only 3 matches were played.

2004

Name                Mat    I  NO  Runs   HS     Ave     SR 100 50
HH Streak             3    3   1   106   45   53.00  64.63   -  -
BG Rogers             3    3   0   131   54   43.66  72.37   -  2
SV Carlisle           3    3   0    81   71   27.00  75.00   -  1
GW Flower             3    3   0    64   59   21.33  65.30   -  1
DD Ebrahim            3    3   0    57   33   19.00  64.04   -  -

2006

Name                Mat    I  NO  Runs   HS     Ave     SR 100 50
GM Strydom            1    1   0    58   58   58.00 100.00   -  1
BRM Taylor            5    5   2   169   79*  56.33  74.77   -  1
S Matsikenyeri        5    5   1   178   89   44.50  89.44   -  1
T Duffin              3    3   0   112   48   37.33  67.46   -  -
H Masakadza           5    5   1   143   75   35.75  70.79   -  1

That's a marked improvement on 2004, then, despite a few of Zimbabwe's trademark batting collapses in the current series. They aren't anything new, of course - similar collapses characterised the performances of both sides in 2004. Even going further down the tables than I've shown here, the current squad would seem to be ahead - in 2004, only 4 members of the Zim squad had batting averages above 20, while in the current series, there were 7. All this despite the much-vaunted experience of the Bangladeshi side, which has remained largely unchanged over the two series.

Moving on to the bowling - which is a little bit harder to rank, as there are so many figures you can base it on - economy? Wickets taken? Best figures in a match? These tables are sorted by economy.

2004

Name                Mat    O      M     R   W    Ave  Best  4w 5w    SR  Econ
HH Streak             3   28.5    4    81   7  11.57  4-30   1  -  24.7  2.80
RW Price              3   30      0   122   3  40.66  2-38   -  -  60.0  4.06
GB Brent              2   18.1    2    74   3  24.66  2-32   -  -  36.3  4.07
GW Flower             3   26      0   111   4  27.75  3-36   -  -  39.0  4.26
AM Blignaut           1    3.5    0    19   0    -     -     -  -    -   4.95

2006

Name                Mat    O      M     R   W    Ave  Best  4w 5w    SR  Econ
P Utseya              5   50      4   151   4  37.75  2-25   -  -  75.0  3.02
EC Rainsford          4   40      3   172   5  34.40  2-46   -  -  48.0  4.30
AJ Ireland            3   27      3   120   4  30.00  3-41   -  -  40.5  4.44
H Masakadza           5   36      1   166   7  23.71  3-39   -  -  30.8  4.61
RS Higgins            1    7      0    35   0    -     -     -  -    -   5.00

Overall, the current side leaked more runs than their 2004 predecessors - even Prosper Utseya's reputation for parsimony is overshadowed by Heath Streak's outstanding figures of 2.8/over, and Streak has Utseya easily beaten on wickets taken and strike rate - and in general the strike rate is poorer, but the new boys aren't that far behind their predecessors, and certainly aren't bad enough to merit the "toothless attack" reputation they've been labelled with. After all, it was only in the final match of the series that Zim found themselves unable to make inroads in the Bangladesh batting. Not listed here are two other bowlers who, while a bit on the expensive side, have shown their ability to take wickets: Blessing Mawhire and Tawanda Mupariwa. While the bowling attack still needs more experience, the basis is there for an attack that can do the job that's required of it.

All of which makes me wonder if it's worth expending effort to bring back the "senior" players, as some would like to see ZC do, or if we wouldn't be better placed sticking with the core team that's been formed over the course of the West Indies and Bangladesh series, and putting the effort into building them into a more effective & cohesive unit. The core of a good team is there, they've moved on from the flashes of ability shown in the West Indies to producing more consistent performances in this series, where they have played well beyond expectations (5th ODI excepted) - all that's really lacking is the experience, which will only come if the team continues to play together.

On current form, Zimbabwe must at least have a shot at qualifying for main part of the Champions Trophy - they've proven they can beat Bangladesh, convincingly when they put their minds to it (although conditions in India will probably work more to Bangladesh's favour than Zimbabwe's), and the West Indies are still struggling on the international stage. Zim qualifying would be an upset, no doubt, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.