New Zealand begin their short trip of Zimbabwe with the first of the two T20Is at Harare. The match will be played on October 15 and will begin at 1200 hours GMT.

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Zimbabwe have had a couple of decent series at home against Bangladesh and Pakistan. While they lost everything to Pakistan, they did well sporadically and managed to overcome Bangladesh in both, the Tests and the ODIs.

New Zealand (2/7 at Ladbrokes), on the other hand, could be a different proposition. After all, both, Pakistan and Bangladesh generally struggled against pace bowling on pitches that assists bowlers of such kind. New Zealand should much better against the Zimbabwean medium-pacers given that they would have had enough and more practice against bowlers of this pedigree at home in the domestic circuit.

New Zealand are coming off a long break since the end of the World Cup and rustiness could be one of the concerns. They also have a new captain in Ross Taylor after Daniel Vettori had quit from that position and that should be an interesting to keep an eye on. There are a couple of new faces in the squad but the ones to keep an eye on would be James Franklin and Jesse Ryder.

Franklin is coming at the back of some solid, matured performances in the Champions League T20 whereas Ryder will look to get back into some hitting rhythm.

There will be another Taylor leading the pack against him; Brendan, who had taken over as the captain of Zimbabwe two series ago. He will hope for some batting support from the other end, from the likes of Charles Coventry and Hamilton Masakadza. Interestingly, Brian Vitori isn’t a part of the squad and Kyle Jarvis could share the new ball with Chris Mpfou.

Despite the long layoff, New Zealand should be favourites to beat Zimbabwe (3/1 at Boylesports) here.