Jonathan Campbell with father Alastair Campbell.
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Photo: X Page by Jonathan Campbell.
Alastair Campbell is one of the greats in Zimbabwean cricket. He has visited Bangladesh many times as a player and commentator. Now his son is also coming to play in Bangladesh. Former captain’s son Jonathan Campbell has been called up to the Zimbabwe team for the first time with this tour team.
26-year-old Jonathan Legg is a leg-spinning all-rounder. He has played 26 T20s so far in domestic cricket. He also played for the Zimbabwe ‘A’ team.
There is only one new face in the 15-member team. Jonathan was part of the gold-winning Zimbabwe Emerging team at the African Games last March.
Along with Jonathan, Clive Madande and Brian Bennett who are in the emerging team are also in the Bangladesh tour team. But both have experience in international cricket. The 23-year-old keeper-batsman Madande has played 15 ODIs and 20 T20Is. A 20-year-old off-spinning all-rounder, Bennett has played 6 T20Is.
Sikandar Raja will lead the team on the tour of Bangladesh after returning from IPL. The all-rounder has played two matches for Punjab Kings in the IPL so far.
Apart from Raja, experienced and regular cricketers like Ryan Burl, Sean Williams, Blessing Mujarabani, Craig Irvine, Richard Ngarava are on this tour.
Pace bowling all-rounder Faraz Akram and batsman Tadiwanashe Marumani have returned to the team.
Last January, Zimbabwe played a T20I tour to Sri Lanka. Tinashe Kamunhukamwi, Milton Shumba, Carl Mumba and Tony Munyonga have dropped out of that team.
The Zimbabwean team is scheduled to come to Bangladesh next Sunday. The series begins on May 3. The first three matches of the five-match series will be played in Chittagong, the next two in Mirpur.
Bangladesh is playing this series as a preparation for the World Cup. The preliminary team of 17 members will have a preparation camp in Chittagong on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for this series. After that the final team of the series will be announced.
Zimbabwe could not make it to the 20-team World Cup this time. Uganda and Namibia qualified for the World Cup after qualifying from the African region.
Zimbabwe Team: Sikandar Raja (captain), Faraj Akram, Brian Bennett, Ryan Burl, Jonathan Campbell, Craig Irvine, Jaylord Gambi, Luke Jangwe, Clive Madande, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Blessing Mujarabani, Ainslie Ndlovu, Richard Ngarava, Sean Williams.
