Pallekele, Feb 17 (IANS) Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza said that qualifying for the Super 8s was only part of the larger mission the team had set for themselves after his side sealed a place in the next stage of the T20 World Cup 2026 following a washed-out match against the Ireland cricket team at the Pallekele International Stadium on Tuesday.

Both teams got one point each after the washout, which helped Zimbabwe reach five points in the Group B points table, thus eliminating any chances of the 2021 champions, Australia, reaching the next round.

“The fact that we’ve qualified for the Super 8s hasn’t changed the ultimate goal that we set out for. Like I said, it’s just a tick in the box, but we have a lot of other goals to achieve and everybody loves an underdog story, don’t they?” Raza said, reflecting on the achievement.

The skipper recalled Zimbabwe’s journey through the qualification pathway, including the sub-regional qualifiers where they faced teams like Kenya, Rawanda and Tanzania

“I’ll take you back when we played the sub-regional qualifiers B, and we played the Kenya, the Rwanda, Tanzania, and all those teams. And I remember I stood up to my troops and I said, we are in this position or in this mess, as you want to call it, because of us. There’s no one else to blame. And only us that would get this mess clear and only us can get it out of it. So what are we gonna do about it? And we won the qualifiers B, regional sub-regional B, then the main qualifiers happened. We won that as well,” he said.

Zimbabwe is placed in a tough group in the Super 8, as they will have to face defending champions India, 2024 runner-ups South Africa, and two-time champions West Indies and finish in the top two in the points table to reach the semi-final.

On preparing for the tough phase, Raza said the team management will closely analyse conditions and opposition.

“Yeah, certainly so. Myself and the coach will sit down. We watched Sri Lanka in the last three games as well. We’re going to have the data on them and we try and put our best foot forward and try and win that game. That is the whole point of us being here.”

Raza feels that adapting to changing conditions will be crucial for them as the team will now have to play Super 8s matches in India.

“I think every condition we find ourselves in, if we can find a day or two to train, I think we’ll sum up the conditions really well and hopefully make those plans. One thing you can’t fight is the weather and conditions. So we try and learn those conditions if we can have two, three training days in a particular city, wherever we’re going to.”

Before the Super 8s, Sikandar Raza’s team will face the co-hosts Sri Lanka in their last group stage match at the R.Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.

–IANS

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