Zimbabwe will be up against New Zealand in the second and final Test in Bulawayo, starting Thursday, August 7, with an objective of levelling the series. Zimbabwe will be buoyed by the return of veteran wicketkeeper-batter Brendan Taylor, who returns to international cricket after serving a 3.5-year ban for failing to report an approach for spot-fixing. Taylor will strengthen a flailing batting order for Zimbabwe, which, despite playing almost 10 Test matches this year, hasn't lived up to expectations.
On the other hand, New Zealand are losing players by the minute due to injuries, one after the other. It started with Glenn Phillips and then skipper Tom Latham joined the list. Neither will be part of the second Test as well. Joining them on the sidelines will be pacers Nathan Smith and Will O'Rourke and hence, New Zealand have had to play around with their combination. The Black Caps have confirmed that Jacob Duffy will make his Test debut and it seems Ajaz Patel will also return to the side, in place of Michael Bracewell, who left for England for the Hundred.
Zimbabwe batted first in the opening Test and weren't able to put a sizeable score on the board to challenge New Zealand. If they bat first again, the hosts will hopefully learn from their mistakes in the first game and improve upon it to bat a bit better and put an understaffed New Zealand under pressure.
My Dream11 team for ZIM vs NZ 2nd Test
Brian Bennett, Sean Williams (vc), Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor, Will Young, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell (c), Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner, Tanaka Chivanga
Playing XIs
Zimbabwe: Brian Bennett, Ben Curran, Nick Welch, Sean Williams, Craig Ervine(c), Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor (wk), Newman Nyamhuri, Vincent Masekesa, Blessing Muzarabani, Tanaka Chivanga
New Zealand: Will Young, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Mitchell Santner (c), Ajaz Patel, Jacob Duffy, Matt Henry, Zak Foulkes/Matthew Fisher