Zimbabwe missed the 2024 T20 World Cup but came back by going unbeaten through the African qualifiers. They beat the Netherlands in a warm-up but then lost to Oman, a result they will be determined not to repeat. Brendan Taylor, back in international colours, is expected to open with the highly rated Brian Bennett. Captain Sikandar Raza has 2,883 runs and 102 wickets from 127 T20Is, and Ryan Burl scored 130 runs in four innings at an average of 65 in the pre-tournament tri-series in Afghanistan.
Blessing Muzarabani (93 T20I wickets) and Richard Ngarava (108) share the new ball, and the spin options of Wellington Masakadza, Graeme Cremer, Raza, Bennett and Burl should suit Colombo. Raza took 15 wickets in SA20 2025–26.
Oman come in buoyed by that warm-up win. Jatinder Singh made 55 in it and 132 runs in four matches at the Asia qualifiers, Vinayak Shukla has 409 runs in 19 T20Is at a strike rate of 140.6, and Jiten Ramanandi hit 34 off 18 balls against Zimbabwe. Sufyan Mehmood took three wickets in the warm-up and Faisal Shah picked up three across two games. Shakeel Ahmed has been impressive too, with two wickets against Sri Lanka A and six in the qualifiers.
