Zimbabwe had as many as three debutants in the Boxing Day Test against Afghanistan in Bulawayo. One of them, opening batter Ben Curran, went on to score 68 on day one, while the other two debutants were pace bowlers Trevor Gwandu and Newman Nyamhuri.Curran reached his half-century off just 54 balls, and hit 11 boundaries during his stay of 74 deliveries. After the day’s play, Sean Williams, who ended unbeaten on 145, felt Curran’s approach helped set the tone for Zimbabwe, who ended up scoring 363 at 4.27 runs an over.“I think it’s huge. That intent and those partnerships going forward, it’s amazing,” Williams said. “The intent one batsman shows, allows the other batsman to score. It’s like, he ends up benefiting from your intent. And that’s what we want in the team.”Related
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Williams said players like him, Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza have been “around for a long time”, and that Zimbabwe wanted the incoming debutants to just have “clear minds”.“It’s kind of like going back to grade one again, and it’s actually really refreshing as a senior to go back and review all of those things that you used to do in a team meeting – taking notes, doing this thing, analysing, [and] checking your videos,” he said. “Things like that, these younger guys, we’re encouraging them to do.”Zimbabwe entered the Test series on the back of defeats to Afghanistan in both the T20I and the ODI series with their batting coming under criticism. But Williams, and half-centurions Curran and Ervine, helped Zimbabwe dominate the opening day of the first Test in what was a turnaround of fortunes for the hosts. Williams put that down to having “clear plans”.“Going into training, coming to a meeting, and being absolutely clear on what you need to do,” he said. “Keeping that good ball out, but scoring off the bad ball. And that’s the intent that we’re after from all of us… Every bowler bowls bad balls. But you have to put them away and you have to be brave enough to be able to try to put them away.”