Preview: West Indies Women’s Tour of Zimbabwe

It's not often you can say the same for West Indies women’s cricket, but less than a week after the WCPL finished, West Indies Women are off to Zimbabwe for a historic first series between the two sides. In fact, they have never played each other before in either the 50-over or T20 formats. For Zimbabwe, it is their first home WODI series against a full member since Bangladesh toured in 2024.

Before we get into the series itself, it is worth stating that women’s cricket in Zimbabwe is still very much in its infancy. Their first international game was in 2006, and they didn’t have their 50-over games classified as WODIs until 2021. They were only added to the Women’s Future Tours Programme for the first time last year, and their inclusion was controversial as they were chosen over the higher-ranked Thailand and Scotland. To emphasise the point, in this year’s Women’s T20 World Cup qualifiers, both sides beat Zimbabwe, who came away without a single win.

The Lady Chevrons have struggled to adapt to the higher level of cricket involved in the Women’s World Championship. It has been a brutal learning experience. Back in March, the team travelled to New Zealand, only to be beaten by 92 runs, 110 runs, and 10 wickets. Those were the WT20Is. In the WODIs, the margins of defeat were 180 runs, 8 wickets, and 200 runs, respectively. Only once, in the first WODI, did the team pass 110 runs in a game.

Things didn’t improve during their May tour of Pakistan. After making 10 wholesale changes from the New Zealand tour, they lost every game, and the margins of defeat were just as heavy. In the WODIs, they lost by 168 runs, 206 runs, and 9 wickets respectively. In the T20Is, they lost by 153 runs, 67 runs, and 133 runs.

In Zimbabwe’s WT20I series at home against the South Africans earlier this month, most of the players were dropped following the New Zealand tour. Meanwhile, the Proteas chose to test their bench strength, allowing six of their World Cup side to play in the WCPL instead. It didn’t make a difference to the scoreline as the South Africans swept the series 5-0, though some of the matches were closer because of the weakened South African squad.

All of this should be kept in mind as we look at the squad West Indies women are taking to Zimbabwe. West Indies are strong favourites in all six games, which is not often the case, and could have copied what South Africa did by resting key players and giving fringe players more game time. However, that’s not quite what has happened with West Indies’ squad selection.

There is a sense that West Indies can’t afford to take any risks in the WODIs if they don’t want to risk missing out on the WODI World Cup again, as they did last year. They may be big favourites for the series, but those odds will never feel favourable enough. 

The WT20Is are a different story as the team have already qualified for the next T20 World Cup, which allows them much more freedom to experiment.

This explains why Hayley Matthews will play the WODIs but skip the WT20I series. With the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), a home series against Pakistan and the Women’s Premier League coming up, she will play plenty of cricket over the next few months anyway. It makes sense to manage her workload here.

The same could be said for Deandra Dottin, who will be absent for personal reasons. Dottin also has a deal in the WBBL, so will almost certainly play in the Pakistan series if available. It makes sense to manage her workload by allowing her to miss this series as well.

Another absence is Qiana Joseph, who has been dropped for form reasons. Joseph had a poor WCPL, scoring just 57 runs in four games, and she has only had one WT20I score above 17 in her last 18 innings, stretching back to May last year. Her WODI form has been marginally better, but she has not made a score above 30 in her last seven games. Quiana has been having more success with the ball of late, but not enough to keep her place. After all, West Indies have plenty of other slow-left-arm options available to them.

Into the side comes Chinelle Henry, who missed the Ireland WODI series due to injury. Henry has been in good form this summer after a successful stint in the Women’s Hundred for Mumbai Indians London. She carried that form into the WCPL, where she scored a memorable 41 off 21 balls for Jamaica Empress in their opening game of the tournament. West Indies might also use this series as an opportunity to give her more overs with the ball, as she was only able to bowl six of them during the WCPL, and her pace might be handy on the Zimbabwe tracks.

Also coming into the side is Eboni Brathwaite. The 17-year-old Bajan did not have the most successful WCPL, with 45 runs at an average of 9.00, but more than half of those came in 6s, and more than two-thirds of her total runs came in boundaries. The challenge for her and the West Indies coaching staff is to try and harness her incredible natural power-hitting talent while staying in for more than 15 balls. If she can learn to do that, it will be very difficult for Joseph to reclaim her place in the side.

With Matthews and Dottin rested and Joseph out of the side, it will be interesting to see who opens with Brathwaite in the WT20Is. West Indies could go with experience and partner her with Stafanie Taylor or experiment with someone like Zaida James. There’s also the more left-field pick of Jannillea Glasgow, who opens in domestic cricket and didn’t get as many chances to bat in WCPL.

Another batter looking for more game time is Mandy Mangru. She did keep wicket throughout the WCPL but was used by the Tridents rather oddly as a number 11 batter. Shermaine Campbelle is likely to take the gloves, but Mangru gives West Indies more flexibility if Campbelle wants to focus purely on continuing her batting form.

The Zimbabwe series also offers plenty of opportunities for the West Indies players who didn’t get a chance to bowl as frequently in the WCPL. Karishma Ramharack only managed to bowl around 10 overs in the whole tournament. This is still better than Ashmini Munisar (8 overs), Shawnisha Hector (7 overs), and James and Glasgow (1 over), and Jahzara Claxton, who didn’t bowl at all during the tournament. There will be chances here for all of them to get full allocations in at least one of the games.

As for the Zimbabweans, at the time of writing, they have yet to name their squad. And given their tendency to make wholesale changes, as they did for the Pakistan tour, only to then revert, like when they recalled the players from the New Zealand squad for the South Africa series, it makes it hard to predict who will be in the squad, never mind highlighting players to keep an eye on.

Josephine Nkomo will likely captain the side after missing the Pakistan tour through injuries. Nkomo averages over 40 with the bat in WODIs, though she has yet to play a WODI this calendar year. Michelle Mavunga seems almost certain to make the squad, too. The 21-year-old all-rounder made her Zimbabwe senior debut during the South Africa series and was both the team’s top scorer and leading wicket-taker. Other likely picks include Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano and Nomvelo Sibanda, who offer experience with both the bat and ball respectively.

No matter who Zimbabwe select, the expectation for the West Indies team will be the same: Win all six games. Anything less would be considered a disappointment. However, this is West Indies cricket; nothing is guaranteed.