Greater Tests Await For England After Easy Zimbabwe Victory

Zimbabwe proved to be weak opposition for England who triumphed inside three days of the one-off Test in Nottingham.

After losing the toss, England posted 565/6 declared before bowling out the tourists for 265. Ben Stokes' side then enforced the follow-on and had the game wrapped up just after 3:30pm on Saturday as Zimbabwe were dismissed for 255 to give the hosts an easy win.

It certainly provided an entertaining three days in Nottingham with cricket lovers across the globe enjoying an international contest on a different time-zone to the Indian Premier League.

Back to winning ways

It is something of a cliche in sport to say that 'you can only beat what is in front of you' and that is certainly what England did at Trent Bridge from Thursday to Saturday!

And a victory over any side was welcomed for Brendan McCullum's team after they suffered a 423-run reverse against New Zealand in their last match in this format back in December.

Not that other formats had provided a welcome distraction after England had been thrashed in India ahead of a miserable ICC Champions Trophy campaign.

Strong Performances Across The Board

There were very few players who missed out for England with all of their front line bowlers picking up at least one wicket and centuries for all of the top three along with a half-century for Harry Brook at number five.

Zak Crawley (124) and Ben Duckett (140) put on 231 for the opening wicket before Ollie Pope top scored with 171.

With the ball, Shoaib Bashir was England's top performer in both innings with 3/62 followed by 6/81.

In fact, the only player who was not at their best was their greatest of all time, Joe Root who did 13,000 Test runs but only contributed 34 runs and didn't take a wicket from his only over with the ball.

Greater Tests Await

The four-day Test against Zimbabwe was never meant to be a close contest and has served its purpose for England who now go into white ball mode ahead of a return to Test action next month.

India are the next red-ball visitors for a five-Test series which begins at Headingley, Leeds on Friday June 20th. Gujarat Titans' Shubman Gill has been announced as the captain, replacing Rohit Sharma, and it will be very interesting to see how India perform in this new era without Rohit or Virat Kohli.

And after that series concludes, all of England's thoughts will go to the other side of the world with an Ashes series beginning in November to prepare for!

Questions Answered or Questions Remain?

Ahead of this four-day Test, big questions hovered over the Test futures of Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Shoaib Bashir but all three produced the goods with emphatic performances!

However, questions remain as India's Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav, along with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are sure to provide a tougher examination for Crawley and Pope with the ball ahead the rest of 2025.

And with the ball, many will pour cold water on Bashir's nine-wicket haul, citing the lack of ability and depth in the Zimbabwe batting line-up.

But as ever, one can only beat the opposition in front of them and if nothing else, England's players and overall team environment will take confidence and self-belief out of the win over the Chevrons.

READ NEXT

Special Bets on the Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars, PSL 2025 game

Bet on the Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars Final match in PSL 2025 with our special bet offers. Expert analysis for Quetta Gladiators vs Lahore Qalandars betting today.

View

Special Bets on the LSG vs RCB, Match 70, IPL 2025 game

Bet on LSG vs RCB, with our special bet offers. Expert analysis for the LSG vs RCB match betting today.

View