Birthday boy Blessing Muzarabani speaks exclusively to India.com and opens up on challenges of bowling in T10 cricket, his experience from limited-overs series vs India and time spent with Lucknow Super Giants.
Blessing Muzarabani is one of the tallest and most promising fast bowler to come out of Zimbabwe in the recent years. The 6 feet 6 inches tall pacer from Harare has been one of the Zimbabwean stars when it comes to the T20I format of the game, claiming 66 wickets in 56 matches till date at an excellent average of 22.19.
The 28-year-old also has 60 ODI wickets and 24 Test scalps in 7 matches at an average of 24.08. He caught the eye of former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper and captain Tatenda Taibu, who fast-tracked his entry into the national side.
After Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the 2019 ODI World Cup in England, Muzarabani took up a Kolpak contract to play for Northamptonshire in County cricket. Muzarabani returned to international cricket for Zimbabwe in 2020 after Brexit brought an early end to his Kolpak contract and he immediately starred in an ODI series win over Pakistan.
He is one of the few Zimbabwe cricketers in recent years who have come close to Indian Premier League (IPL) apart from Sikandar Raza, who played for Punjab Kings. Muzarabani was picked as a net bowler for Lucknow Super Giants where he trained under current India head coach Gautam Gambhir and bowling coach Morne Morkel.
In an exclusive interview with India.com website on the sidelines of Zim Afro T10 League, birthday boy Blessing Muzarabani, who turns 28 on Wednesday (October 2), speaks about bowlers mindset in T10 cricket, his time in County cricket and experience of training under Gautam Gambhir.
Excerpts from an exclusive interview…
You have a very successful career in T20 international cricket. Can you explain how bowler’s mindset differs while playing a T10 as compared to a T20 match?
BM: If you don’t pick your length quickly you’re going to be traveling so with T10 you have to be on point and there’s some things like you have to bowling a slower ball first delivery in T10 but in T20 I feel like you have the luxury of bowling to try and bowl your best ball and land or bounce higher.
I think T20 and ODI cricket is also good but T10 is not really nice for a bowler. But it’s good because it challenges your skills. It’s really good for us bowlers, but it’s tough. But speaking about preference, I’ll go for T20 cricket.
A few years back, you had signed a Kolpak deal with Northamptonshire. What were your gains from playing in county cricket?
BM: When I went to county cricket, it was really good for me because I had to learn how to bowl fuller up to the batter because sometimes when you’re tall you feel like you just have to bowl back off the length. But I feel like in country cricket you have to really pitch the ball up and try to look for swing. So the conditions there are different with what we play here so I got a lot of learning
Happy Birthday to Blessing Muzarabani! 🎉
May you continue to bless the field with your thunderbolts ⚡️#YehHaiKarachi | #KingsSquad | #KarachiKings pic.twitter.com/KQWPzNpw1T
— Karachi Kings (@KarachiKingsARY) October 2, 2024
Zimbabwe had a very competitive T20I series against India recently. How was you interaction with the young Indian cricketers like Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh and Shubman Gill?
BM: It was great. Those guys actually did well in international cricket. They are great players, top class players.
So playing against them was a great experience. For us as a Zimbabwean team, there were a lot of things that we took from that series. It was an easy series, a tough series. So playing against India was really nice for us.
You spent some time with Lucknow Super Giants team and current Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir. How was your interaction with Gambhir and how do you find him as a coach?
BM: He’s (Gautam Gambhir) a good coach. He used to come to me and give me some few tips, things to do. So, he was really helpful with me practicing there.
I think he’s a good guy because I wasn’t in the team… Of course, I wasn’t in the squad but I was in and around the team and stuff. So he was really nice to me.
Zimbabwe have struggled to qualify for top ICC events. Which are the primary areas of concern that Zimbabwe need to address to return to being a competitive side in events like ODI and T20 World Cups?
BM: I think last time we played in the T20 World Cup in 2021, we really did well because we almost got to semi-final or something like that but we couldn’t.
But I just feel like maybe in the qualifiers we just have to learn how to handle pressure and you know how it is when you’re playing this tournament and stuff, there’s a lot of pressure. So I think we just have to try to focus when the pressure comes, we deal with it and I believe that we can be one of the big teams in the world.
