There are those in England who have been wondering why on earth their cricket team are playing in Zimbabwe, given all the circumstances. When you look at the two sides' recent records, all becomes clear. Zimbabwe were the only Test-playing nation England could find whose one-day form was worse than theirs. England go into the series on the back of an 11-match losing streak, but Zimbabwe, if you discount three cheap wins against Bangladesh, have actually lost their last 12 games - a losing Heath Streak, you might say. As battles go, this is the clash of the tinies.

But that needn't make it dull. Both teams bat and field a lot better than they bowl, which should mean plenty of runs for the Harare crowd to enjoy. Zimbabwe will field the formidable Andy Flower and the dangerous Alistair Campbell alongside more or less the same attack that allowed the once-dour South Africans to score 363 in three and a half hours the other day. England have turned up not so much with a new-look team, as has been widely suggested, more with a pantomime horse: first-choice batsmen, plus second-string bowlers - no Gough, Caddick, Mullally, Ealham or Croft.

This has led to a classic piece of selectorial nonsense. Owais Shah, the find of an otherwise fruitless one-day series last summer, is in the squad but out of the team, while there are so many vacancies down the order that four others will make their debuts. If they do as well as Shah, let's hope they get treated a little better.

Shah isn't the first young Englishman to be handled this cursorily. Ben Hollioake, after making a famous 63 on debut against Australia at Lord's as a teenager, found himself carrying the drinks on the tour that followed, to Sharjah. England won that tournament, but they might have been better off not winning it and giving Hollioake a regular place. That way, he could have played 65 one-dayers by now, instead of 13. And Duncan Fletcher might not be so dismayed with his squad's inexperience.

Tomorrow, England are expected to field Hollioake alongside Andy Flintoff for the first time. They are either the most exciting allround talents in England, or under-performing wastrels, according to your point of view. It's true enough that they have under-performed, especially in the County Championship; but it is very hard to see England becoming a force in one-day cricket again without them.

The newcomers seem to have settled in instantly, adding shrewdness as well as vitality. Jeremy Snape, a puzzling selection on paper, has joined the management committee, along with James Kirtley, and has been encouraged to share the secrets of Gloucestershire's success. His own game could have been designed for Zimbabwe's low, slow and currently bone-dry surfaces: he can improvise with the bat in the closing overs, and his offbreaks are so devoid of pace that he supplies his own slow-motion replays. He could be the unlikely star of a decidedly mixed show.

Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com.

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