THE eighth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup roared into life in Australia this morning, but the Zimbabwe cricket team is scheduled to kickstart its campaign against Ireland in Hobart tomorrow.
Zimbabwe will be making a sixth appearance at the biennial competition while they are also making a return to the event for the first time since 2016.
In Group B of the first round matches, the Chevrons will be hoping for a dream start against Ireland, who have won five of the eight matches between the two teams, in their quest for a maiden Super 12 dance.
But it is the Group A matches pitting Sri Lanka against Namibia as well as UAE and the Netherlands, which will get the T20 World Cup underway in Geelong today.
Zimbabwe's other group rivals West Indies and Scotland will play the first game of the day tomorrow with the Bellerive Oval hosting all six Group A first round fixtures.
Only the top two teams are expected to progress to the knockout phase.
Chevrons coach Dave Houghton who has transformed the side since his arrival three months ago is targeting nothing short of reaching the Super 12 stage.
"It's an absolute privilege to be here and you just hope we do ourselves justice on the big stage, " Houghton told BBC Sport Africa last week.
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"We know what we've got to do - we're here to qualify for the main groups. That pressure was on us before we left home, even without the knowledge of where we are in the rankings.
"These three games that we are playing are games we should win, so let's go out there and play our best cricket," he added.
However, two time champions West Indies remain favourites to top the group while there is not much to choose from between the other three teams.
Zimbabwe are ranked higher than Ireland and Scotland.
The Chevrons have a number of potential match winners notably Sikandar Raza who was voted the ICC Player of the month for August as well as Ryan Burl who starred with the ball in Zimbabwe's famous ODI victory over Australia last month.
Blessing Muzarabani who is just returning from a lengthy injury layoff is expected to lead the Chevrons' attack in Australia alongside new kid on the block Bradley Evans.
The presence of captain Craig Ervine and veteran allrounder Sean Williams is a big plus for the country's top order batting line up at the event.
Ervine was part of the 16 skippers who made history, coming together in Melbourne for the first time at an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup yesterday.
Houghton's re-appointment at the Chevrons head coach appears to have generated a feel-good factor around the camp with the team winning seven of their last nine T20Is.
The team showed a bit of fight when they lost thier first warmup game to Asian champions Sri Lanka last week but unfortunately the game against Namibia was washed out by the rains.
Zimbabwe plays West Indies on Wednesday while the final Group B encounter against Scotland is scheduled for Friday.
Zimbabwe: Craig Ervine (c), Ryan Burl, Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chatara, Bradley Evans, Luke Jongwe, Clive Madande, Wessly Madhevere, Wellington Masakadza, Tony Munyonga, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava, Sikandar Raza, Milton Shumba, Sean Williams
