Hoping for a new chapter
There isn't much that a coach can do to motivate his players when his side is whitewashed by their closest competitors in international cricket, but Zimbabwe coach Stephen Mangongo believes that his players can put in a much better effort in the five-match ODI series.
"It's a new chapter going into the one-day series [beginning on Friday]. I think it will be a close-fought competition. Most of the one-day games are always bitter and tough between these two nations and I expect the same," said Mangongo. The two teams have faced each other 59 times so far, with Bangladesh winning 31 and Zimbabwe 28.
Zimbabwe have a host of new players in the squad and Mangongo hopes the inclusions will be a breath of freshness in the side. In Solomon Mire and Peter Moore they have two uncapped players in the side and they are expected to make their debuts.
"We hope that the young guys we have brought will be the new blood into our system, we believe that they will bring freshness into the team. We have got Peter and Solomon, who is playing in Australia. So we think the breath of freshness will help the guys stand up," hoped Mangongo.
Bangladesh's spinners, who scalped 49 wickets in the Test series, have been a nightmare for the visitors. Mangongo however believes that his side's batting has improved over the last month and that they are gradually getting used to the conditions here.
"We have improved by every game and I am very pleased with the way my batsmen are progressing. In the first Test we really struggled, and then we got to Khulna where we scored 368 runs and then 374 in Chittagong.
"So we are improving with every game and I think bowling in Test cricket and bowling in one-day cricket are totally different. In Test cricket you can set a lot of attacking fields and if you set those kind of fields in one-day cricket you will get murdered, so that's a different ball game," reckoned Mangongo.
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