Perpetually jealous of the cricketing culture in England. Although I feel like it’s getting better in Australia every year.

That is what test cricket is all about as well.

An upset in a T20 is a sugar hit, an upset in a test match is a legacy.

It rewards lower nations, yes, but why shouldn’t it? The answer to this is not to scrap the competition or for the big three to play less, but to ensure every other nation plays more often.

The only other disappointment is that this is a 2-match series. A third test would have been great to decide the contest!

When Welch and Williams were batting together on day 1, everything looked so promising, but they never recovered from Welch going off injured.

Their bowling was also a little indisciplined at times as they struggled to deal with the patient approach by the Tigers.

To win without runs from Shanto, Monimul, Mushfiqur or Jaker was so important and shows some depth for the Tigers going forward.

Zimbabwe on the other hand were very disappointing after such an impressive effort in the first test.

They need one of their experienced players in Shanto, Monimul or even Shadman or Joy to stand up and say enough. This team has the talent, but it too often lacks the IQ to win.

🇿🇼

On the flip side, it was an opportunity missed by Bangladesh. Taijul struggled for rhythm in the first innings.

But as has been the issue for this team over the last 3 years, a few of their batsmen got past 50 but failed to make a genuine impact on the outcome of the game.

Add to that the runs into young gun Bennett at the top of the order and I’m praying the ICC gives these nations more of a chance to show their wares. We will all be rewarded for it.

🇿🇼

Every time I see Blessing Muzarabani play I’m aghast that he has only been able to play 11 tests in his career. I stand by the assertion that he is the best bowling talent out of Zimbabwe in a decade. In his 11 tests he’s taken 50 wickets @ 20.

There’s been a lot of chat about how ‘unfair’ the test championship is. I’d hazard a guess that England, Australia and India, the teams who play the most cricket in the tournament would rather be playing 30+ tests every cycle than the measly 5 that Zimbabwe has played in the last 2 years.

They maybe lack one more quality death bowler but have so many options at the top who can take early wickets.

I think the only player we haven’t seen who might get more of a go next year is Ashok.

The real excitement for this team though is the white ball depth. A few years ago the kiwis had steel in their team but probably lacked some quality power hitters. Now with Phillips and Mitchell as well as other players like Seifert, Abbas, Chapman, Robinson and Allen they have much more depth.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some changes to the test team next summer with someone like Mariu getting a chance at the top over Conway who might even move down the order, Jamieson will slot nicely back into the team with Henry and O’Rourke while Hay might finally get a go over Blundell.