Tawanda Mupariwa's short, stocky build and pleasant demeanour don't suggest a great quick bowling talent, yet in 2008 he became the fastest Zimbabwe bowler to 50 ODI wickets, getting there in 28 games - nine fewer than Eddo Brandes. But pace isn't Mupariwa's main weapon; a medium pacer who lost a yard after a knee injury in his late 20s, he relies mainly on accuracy, an ability to swing and seam the new ball, and a deceptive slower delivery. Zimbabwe relied upon Mupariwa when their pace-bowling stocks were at an all-time low in the years following the premature retirements of the 'rebel' players, but despite his enviable one-day credentials, he fell out of favour as Zimbabwe searched for genuine express pace bowlers in the lead-up to the return to Test cricket in 2011.

Mupariwa is a product of the Bulawayo development programme. He started off as a wicketkeeper but Wisdom Siziba claimed that position in the local development team and when he joined the Bulawayo Athletic Club the former umpire Chuck Coventry encouraged him to develop his pace bowling. He was selected for the CFX Academy in 2004, and after being controversially omitted from the Zimbabwe Under-19 team Mupariwa's outstanding form as a pace bowler for Matabeleland in the Logan Cup in 2003-04 forced the national selectors to fast-track him into the national squad when the 'rebel' players withdrew from the series against Sri Lanka. He began the 2006 West Indies tour as a fringe player, but made such outstanding progress that he finished as Zimbabwe's first-choice new-ball bowler.

Yet eventually he ended up in the fringes once more, and then seemed to be forgotten altogether by the selectors. Eventually, however, the consistency of his returns in domestic cricket became impossible to ignore, and Mupariwa was in the frame for national honours once again in the lead up to the 2015 World Cup, when he was named in Zimbabwe's 15-man squad.
Liam Brickhill