Cricinfo - India and West Indies are both dangerous opponents

Zimbabwe team coach Carl Rackemann talks to Larry Moyo about the recent Test series against India and the coming triangular tournament.

In terms of reflecting on the recently ended series I feel that in the first Test in Bulawayo, if our first innings batting had been in excess of 300 rather than 173 after winning the toss and batting first we could have done better. It was a good batting wicket but unfortunately we didn't bat well.

From that point in time we bowled quite well and we batted much better in the second innings. We have been playing good cricket since then, culminating in the win in the second Test.

But it could have been a series win if we got more runs in the first innings in Bulawayo. That's a bit disappointing but it's history. That's what happened. To lose in the first Test and come back and win the second Test in the fashion we did, and with the guys playing the quality of cricket they did with bat and ball was pretty exciting stuff, and to come back is a fantastic effort.

I don't like dealing in negatives but it's disappointing that we lost a bowler in each match through injury, Henry Olonga in the first Test and then Watambwa in the second. The other negative was that firstinnings batting in Bulawayo.

I suppose it's very difficult to talk about negatives because there are a lot of positives in so much that the bowlers and batsmen just seem to bowl and bat better and better as the matches wear on. We started from the lowest position but we just improved quite dramatically and the bowling in the second Test was quite exceptional.

We haven't had a good opening partnership but what has been good is that young Dion Ebrahim has looked better and better all the time and he made a significant contribution in the second Test after we lost three quick wickets in the first innings. He had a partnership with Andrew Flower to hold it all together and allow us to finish with a very good first-innings total and that was a tremendous contribution by him.

What we also need to see in one-day internationals coming up is a good opening partnership that gets through the new ball and sets the pace for a very big innings. That's not far away; we are getting closer to seeing such a thing happening.

A draw in the series was a fair result because we had to come back from a loss and win the last game to draw it. Definitely we played better cricket than India in the second Test and you can't pretend that they did not play better cricket than us in the first Test. So I think a draw was fair result if you put it like that.

It would have been quite exciting to have a third match. It's quite an interesting point because we seem to find ourselves playing a lot of two-match Test series. We did in India last November and Bangladesh here in April. Certainly in two matches you can get a 2-0 result or a 1-0 result. But when it's 1-1 there is a bit of that unfinished business.

There are positives and negatives in playing matches in winter and in summer. Obviously the weather in winter is ideal for cricket. The fact that it's not raining is a big positive. The main thing is that it's more convenient for all the other countries to come to Zimbabwe at this time of the year.

The negative is that we don't have enough other cricket being played by the players who are not in the national side playing. It's the first time that we are playing in winter. I think it's a terrific idea and its worth persevering with.

Zimbabwe's cricket is moving forward and we will work towards its continued progress. To beat India, who had beaten Australia 2-1 and ourselves a week ago, says a lot about the team and what the guys are capable of.

Talking about the triangular series: what we have here are two dangerous sides, India and West Indies, if they happen to play well. But equally they are teams we have played and beaten before so I think it will be exciting cricket.

There's going to be a chance for all sides but from my point of view we know what we are capable of achieving and we have to do the right thing with bat, ball and in the field and fight their capabilities to our abilities. Our aim is to reach the final first and then win it, and we can achieve that if we play to the best of our abilities.

The withdrawal of Andy Flower has a huge impact on the team, the makeup of the team and the balance of the side. We are talking of one cricketer who no team in the world would want to be found without.

It's quite an unfortunate development for us and for Andrew himself, and we have to change our plans and look at how we are going to go into the matches, the structure of our bowlers and who bats where and all sorts of things. So there is a lot to cover for us to go into the matches without Andrew.

We have West Indies on Saturday with revenge on our minds. We last met in the Carlton and United series in January and we lost three of our four matches. Out of the three that we lost, two of them we should have won and it was very disappointing, having beaten them in England last year. So revenge is a strong word, but we certainly want to turn the tables, and it's achievable.

They struggled to beat CFX Academy by eight runs on Sunday and they were beaten by seven wickets by the Zimbabwe Country Districts. But the history of cricket is full of situations where teams have a bad start and then suddenly come good.

It's terrific that the Academy did as well as they did and almost defeated them. As to the Districts who beat them on Wednesday, congratulations to them. Nevertheless that does not make the West Indies easy to beat. If we took that sort of attitude, we would have been locked up. So we still have to go out and meet them in the first one-day international on Saturday and treat them with the respect that we would regardless of what the results of their first warm-up games were.

I have just had a quick look at the Harare Sports Club wicket and it looks very, very good. The Test wicket was an excellent cricket wicket and if we have something along those lines on Saturday, we will be very pleased.

India and West Indies are both dangerous opponents

Zimbabwe team coach Carl Rackemann talks to Larry Moyo about the recent Test series against India and the coming triangular tournament