Mumbai: Australia versus West Indies in T20 cricket is a top draw anywhere, anytime. Mumbai’s local cricket fraternity is understandably unenthused by the change. The groups were predetermined based on seedings, meaning the anticipated blockbuster Australia versus West Indies Super Eight clash at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday evening has turned into a Zimbabwe versus West Indies contest at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
While there is no denying they would have preferred the presence of the crowdpullers from Down Under, Zimbabwe earned their place based on strong performance in the group stage, winning three out of four games (one being washed off) to top Group B. Their best show was against Australia, and they also beat Sri Lanka convincingly.
The onus is now on the team from Africa to continue their good work in the group stage and prove they belong here.
One reason for the lacklustre response to Zimbabwe’s presence is that the current generation of Indian cricket fans has rarely seen the African side in action.
Their last bilateral series in India was in 2002 when they played a two-Test series along with a few one-day games. The last time they played in India was in 2016 during the T20 World Cup. At the Wankhede, it will be Zimbabwe’s first match since the ODI game at the 1987 World Cup.
During the pre-game media conference, Zimbabwe captain Raza stated that earning recognition and respect from the cricket fraternity is a big motivation for his side.
Replying to a question on the topic, Raza said: “You asked me if Zimbabwe has been able to achieve that respect that we set out for. How many of you (journalists) have picked Zimbabwe to be a semi-finalist? Clearly no one. So maybe we haven’t done enough yet. And these are things that motivate us. But one thing I can assure you from a Zimbabwe captain and a team point of view, we’ll give it our best shot. So the respect you speak about, only one guy put his hand up that Zimbabwe will get to the semi-final. So clearly we’ve done enough, but not well enough, or not enough for all of you to raise your hands. Hopefully, I’d like to see that one day.”
Having been based in Sri Lanka during the group stage, their lack of experience playing in Mumbai—where the ground is smaller and offers better conditions for batters—will make it a challenge to take on the power-hitters of the West Indies.
Among the qualified teams, Zimbabwe has hit the least number of sixes so far.
“You have to skin the cat differently in Sri Lanka because of the conditions and things like that. Grounds are bigger, wind played a huge part, the wickets were slightly on the slower and turning side, so you had to grind and graft on those wickets.”
“India offers a different challenge. Smaller grounds, smaller boundaries, better wickets, ball flies. So hopefully, I’m not worried about the lack of sixes that we hit in Sri Lanka because we had to sort of win games in a different way. Tomorrow we’re going against West Indies and hopefully we’ll try and match their boundary count and win the game. But there’s more than one way to win a game,” said Raza.
“And Zimbabwe hasn’t played (at the Wankhede), as you said, since 1987. And this is our first T20I game. So imagine, if we can go from this stadium – played one, won one. How nice would that be? That’s our focus.”
