England rekindle Zimbabwe rivalry ahead of testing summer

The restoration of cricketing ties between England and Zimbabwe will become complete on Thursday when Trent Bridge plays host to a standalone four-day test between the two nations.
For Ben Stokes' men the unique fixture provides a tune-up before India visit in June for a marquee five-test series, while for Craig Ervine's tourists it could be the only chance in their careers to play an international on English soil. 

The last red-ball encounter between the two sides came in 2003, James Anderson's debut series, and they have not met in any format since 2007.
"(England) is the only team I haven't played against, so (this) would basically be my debut men's international game against them," 38-year-old Sean Williams, Zimbabwe's premier test batsman with five hundreds and an average of 44, told Reuters after supplanting Anderson as world cricket's longest-tenured player.

"When we talk about a 20-year career, that is an incredible thing to think about."
Both cricket and diplomatic relations soured by the mid-2000s, when Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe embarked on an economy-crippling land redistribution programme which displaced thousands of white farmers and left the African country isolated from the West.