Just before the Bangladesh series, we took a look at where Zimbabwe’s players stood in the LG ODI player rankings. With the series out of the way, it’s time for a quick look at who’s improved - and in one case, who hasn’t.
First, a few points to note. Zim’s loss in the final game in the series dented the scores of most of the players who took part, so you’ll see some players have fallen back from personal bests reached during the 3rd & 4th ODIs. It’s also worth bearing in mind that scores are weighted until a player has played 100 innings / taken 100 wickets, so most of Zim’s player scores are restricted under the weighting formula (more on that at the LG ICC Rankings website, here.) Now without further ado, on to the rankings.
Batting Rankings
Before After
Pos Pts Pos Pts
46 543* 40 576 Brendan Taylor (PB of 579 during series)
77 436 72 451 Elton Chigumbura
83 419 Stuart Matiskenyeri (PB of 425 during series)
=86 401 87 391 Barney Rogers
90 387* Vusi Sibanda
=86 401 95 374 Chamu Chibhabha
95 396 99 360 Andy Blignaut
97 359 Dion Ebrahim
(* = personal best)
So it’s goodbye to Dion Ebrahim, victim of being sidelined in the current setup, but hello to Stuart Matsikenyeri and Vusi Sibanda. Sibanda’s finally beginning to live up to his promise - for the first few series he played in, his performances with the bat certainly didn’t live up to his billing - and his appearance in the rankings with a personal best score reflects that. Matsikenyeri also comes in impressively far up the table for a debut, but it’s a fair position looking at his performances this time around.
You may have been expecting Brendan Taylor to have made better progress up the table after his 3rd ODI heroics, but the ODI rankings actually work against batsmen who are not out at the end of the innings:
(Batsmen) only get a small amount of credit for being not out (because a not out batsman is, by definition, batting at the end of the innings when the value of his wicket is low).
In this case, I’d have to say Taylor’s ranking really doesn’t reflect the true worth of his performances in the series.
Chamu Chibhabha is the only current Zim player to drop in the rankings - partly due to not having played in three games in the series (points are lost for not appearing), but also because his 2.50 average from the two innings he did play are well below his career average of 29.44. Definitely not a good series for him.
Bowling Rankings
Before After
Pos Pts Pos Pts
28 574* 17 651* Prosper Utseya
68 437* 54 481 Tawanda Mupariwa (PB of 486 during series)
69 434 74 423 Douglas Hondo
80 412* Ed Rainsford
86 387 92 377 Andy Blignaut
94 375 Blessing Mawhire (PB of 394 during series)
87 384 95 374 Tinashe Panyangara
(* = personal best)
Prosper Utseya breaks into the top 20 - with the ODI bowling rankings being very rewarding to those with low economy rates, that’s no surprise at all. The question with Prosper is how far he can rise, and if he can stay as miserly against stronger opposition - something the upcoming series against South Africa should give us a few pointers to. Tawanda Mupariwa also makes good progress up the table, thanks to 7 wickets from his three matches. Surprising not to see Hamilton Masakadza there yet - more wickets taken than Mupariwa at a lower economy rate - but he can’t be too far out of the running.
Overall, then, Zim have three more players in the rankings than they had before the series (Dion Ebrahim dropping out, four new players in), and all the current players with the exception of Chibhabha have made progress up the tables. Progress indeed - but there are sterner tests ahead and it remains to be seen if the players can maintain their rankings against tougher opposition.