Zimbabwe team looks much stronger now with the return of some players like Craig Ervine but too much changes could initially be bad for them. Its an interesting series no doubt even though its a very low-key one considering both are minnows. Zimbabwe should have confidence on their side as they have fought well in the recent triangular series against 2 of the top teams but their A team has recently struggled on tour to Bangladesh so it won't be an easy tour for sure for the Zimbabweans. However, one of the bright sides for them is that many of their players have played in Bangladesh a lot before especially in their BPL (20 over) and DPL (50 over) tournaments so playing IN Bangladesh and the team itself isn't alien to them. So its for sure going to be an interesting series. How Zimbabwe will do? well it depends a lot on the type of pitches that Bangladesh prepare but I personally can't see Zimbabwe beating Bangladesh in their conditions but expect them to fight hard. Interestingly! the practice game coming up before the 1st test, Bangladesh have not picked 1 left-arm spinner so it gives us a clue that Bangladesh will prepare slow-low-spinning surfaces come the test series. The main and key player of Zimbabwe I think is Brendan Taylor if Zimbabwe are to thrive there.
As for Bangladesh, they have had a disastrous year in terms of results but if you look at those matches carefully, with most of those games especially in ODIs they had fought and competed really well but really just unlucky that a lot of the games didn't go their own way, games they should've really won. Recently, their board has made a huge decision on the captaincy role and decided to have a split-captaincy for Tests and limited overs. Mushfiqur Rahim has been stripped of his ODI captaincy because of a string of ODI losses this year but retains the Test captaincy because Bangladesh have had good results under him in the games most prestigious format since 2012. Mashrafe is the new ODI captain for Bangladesh with both Shakib and Tamim as vice-captains for ODIs and Tests, so its clearly obvious BCB want their 4 most experienced players held accountable for Bangladesh's results and performances, rather than putting the blame on 1 person. I think this is a very bold move and Bangladesh should look to start fresh from that, forget about the results from this year and move on by starting to beat Zimbabwe. If they can do that then this should give them confidence leading onto a very challenging 2015 where not only they have the world cup but series against Pakistan, India, South Africa and yes Australia. The main and key player of Bangladesh is unquestionably their best player in Shakib Al Hasan who has had a controversial year and was initially banned for 6 months only to have had it reduced and recently served finishing the reduce quota of his ban and is now fully available for the Zimbabwe series.
How Bangladesh will fair well it depends on their attitude. They have really been impressive in their conditions since 2012 nearly winning the Asia Cup, winning the ODI series against both the West Indies and New Zealand that too without their best player Shakib. They also drew an ODI series against Sri Lanka and drew 4 test matches against both Sri Lanka and New Zealand. So prediction wise, I can't really see Zimbabwe winning based on those recent achievements by Bangladesh but nevertheless it is an interesting series despite it being a low-key one.
This series is an unusual one for both teams as its their first 3 match test series in over a decade and along with the 5 ODIs makes this bilateral series a very long one. So its a challenging one for both sides.
My prediction:-
Test series 3-0 to Bangladesh and ODI series 5-0 to Bangladesh.
Good luck to both teams.
