New Zealand toured Zimbabwe in 2025 for two Test matches and won the series 2-0. Liam Brickhill’s tour report as well as the match reports appeared in the 2026 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
Zimbabwe v New Zealand in 2025
Test matches (2): Zimbabwe 0, New Zealand 2
After winning all their five matches in the T20 triangular before this series, New Zealand put the clamps on within the first hour of the first Test, and never let it go. It had been almost eight months since they had played a Test, and nine years since they had taken on Zimbabwe, but they broke their fast with a feast. Devon Conway and Matt Henry were the stars.
A yawning gulf was soon apparent, and a sense of inevitability dulled the glow of New Zealand’s comprehensive triumph. When ebb and flow is absent, onlookers must look to subplot, and the most intriguing was the return of Zimbabwe’s prodigal son Brendan Taylor, after three and a half years in the wilderness because of an ICC ban for failing to report a corrupt approach. Now 39, he looked transformed, about three stone lighter than when he last played, and going about his work with the quiet passion of the revenant gifted a second chance.
For New Zealand, the pre-series chatter was not about who was here, but who wasn’t. Since this series was not part of the World Test Championship, the stakes were lowered: Kane Williamson opted for a stint with Middlesex and London Spirit, while Kyle Jamieson – his first child due – stayed at home. Tom Latham had tweaked his shoulder fielding in a T20 game in England in July and, though he travelled, he was not fit in time to play in the Tests: Mitchell Santner took over as captain. Injuries to Nathan Smith and Will O’Rourke added to the churn, but such was New Zealand’s depth – and the home side’s flimsiness – that it made no difference. They ended their stay in Zimbabwe with seven wins out of seven.
New Zealand’s touring party to Zimbabwe, 2025
*TWM Latham, TA Blundell, MG Bracewell, DP Conway, JA Duffy, MJ Fisher, ZG Foulkes, MJ Henry, BJ Jacobs, BG Lister, DJ Mitchell, HM Nicholls, WP O’Rourke, AY Patel, R Ravindra, MJ Santner, NG Smith, WA Young. Coach: RA Walter.
Latham failed to recover from a shoulder injury, and missed the Tests; Santner captained instead, and Jacobs was added to the squad. GD Phillips was originally selected, but strained a groin muscle, and was replaced by Bracewell. O’Rourke (back) and Smith (abdominal strain) were ruled out of the second Test, and replaced in the squad by Foulkes and Lister.
First Test at Bulawayo, July 30-August 1, 2025
New Zealand won by nine wickets. Toss: Zimbabwe.
But for the mystical Matobo hills, much of Matabeleland is flat, hot and dry, a place of lonely cattle ranches, thorny acacia scrubland and vast horizons – hence the local nickname for Bulawayo, “Skies”. The tracks at Queens Sports Club are usually as arid as the province,
so it proved: Henry collected nine wickets for New Zealand, while Smith, O’Rourke and Santner backed him up with decisive spells. Conway’s 88 was the highest score on either side, and Mitchell made the only other half-century, his 80 giving New Zealand full control. In hindsight, Ervine’s decision to bat was a mistake: Zimbabwe were quickly exposed by the moving ball and, despite a decent bowling effort, they never caught up.
Henry sliced through the top order like a scythe. With the new ball he aimed full, wobbling it both ways: the top three all edged into the slips. As the ball aged, he pulled back his length, and nabbed three more. Smith bowled with relentless vigour, maintaining an uncomfortable off-stump line. The upshot was that Zimbabwe were dismissed for 149 not long after tea, 54 coming in a stand between captain Ervine and wicketkeeper Tsiga. Henry finished with 6-39, New Zealand’s best figures in their 12 Tests in Zimbabwe.
Having seen the lateral movement on offer, the home seamers might have been hopeful, but they were unable to hit a consistent length. That meant there were no pressurised spells or bowling partnerships, and New Zealand eased to 92-0 by stumps.
A wicket from the first ball next morning – Young fending a vicious lifter from Muzarabani to the tumbling Welch at short leg – signalled a gear shift. The first two sessions were the only time during the series Zimbabwe seemed to compete. Occasionally awkward in defence, Conway showed finesse in the arc between backward point and deep extra cover. But Zimbabwe’s bowlers kept battling, and extra vim with the short ball accounted for Nicholls, Conway, Blundell and Bracewell in quick succession. Sikandar Raza had come round the wicket to find Ravindra’s edge, and Santner chipped a simple return catch to leg-spinner Masekesa just before tea, to leave New Zealand – at one point 158-1 – an uncertain 233-7. But Mitchell was still there: he reached 50 with his fourth boundary, and Smith hung around until he retired with an abdominal strain, ending his tour. Mitchell pushed New Zealand beyond 300 before he was last out, attempting one shot too many.
Despite Smith’s absence, and some lower-back discomfort which limited O’Rourke to one spell in the morning, Zimbabwe’s second innings followed much the same pattern as the first: early trouble, a middle-order rally, and a rapid conclusion as pressure mounted, this time with Santner doing much of the damage. Tsiga squeezed enough runs from the tail to force New Zealand to bat again, and Nyamhuri picked up a consolation wicket, but Nicholls thumped his second ball to mid-wicket to end the match inside three days, giving everyone the weekend off.
Player of the Match: MJ Henry.
Second Test at Bulawayo, July 7-9, 2025
New Zealand won by an innings and 359 runs. Toss: Zimbabwe. Test debuts: JA Duffy, MJ Fisher, ZG Foulkes.
This was a match of stark contrasts, during which New Zealand were utterly dominant from start to (early) finish. They soared to their biggest Test win, surpassing an innings and 301, also against Zimbabwe, at Napier in 2011/12, while the Zimbabweans sank to their heaviest defeat. The 23-year-old newcomer Zak Foulkes recorded New Zealand’s best match figures on debut, while Brendan Taylor returned to Zimbabwe’s side at 39, after serving a three-and-a-half-year ban for breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption code. He likened his return to a second debut, 21 years after the first.
Although New Zealand ultimately stole the show, all eyes were on Taylor when the teams lined up for the anthems. He had been added to the squad ahead of the first Test, and now returned to the fray in the same position in which he had made his debut, opening the batting. He top-scored with 44, but New Zealand’s seamers – Henry, Foulkes and Matthew Fisher, another debutant – flattened Zimbabwe by tea.
By now, the hosts knew what to expect from Henry, but it didn’t seem to help: he was soon poking holes in the top order, and finished with another five-wicket haul. Foulkes had done well during the T20s in Harare, and his ability to move the ball both ways really shone. Only Taylor had the nous to deal with the challenge: monkish and studied in defence, he rolled back the years with quick hands on the attack.
His efforts were dwarfed by the visitors’ top order, as Conway, Nicholls and Ravindra all reached 150. Conway was particularly unforgiving behind point, while Ravindra was silken through the covers and gained surprising power with a spring-loaded wristiness through the leg side, off pace and spin alike. Nicholls began steadily against the spinners and, by the time the second new ball was taken on day two, he was well and truly in, weathering the last gasp of Zimbabwe’s tiring bowlers and reaching the close on 150.
With three days to go, all sorts of records beckoned, but Santner mercifully declared before the start of play. Already 476 behind, Zimbabwe were a broken team, and Henry got the better of Bennett with the old two-card trick – swinging one away, and the next one in – to send him packing for a pair in the first over. A procession followed. Foulkes came on first change, and delivered a nine-over spell of classical Test-match swing bowling. He threatened the stumps and the pads, exploiting vulnerabilities outside off on his way to 5-37 – and nine in the match. Welch battled gamely for an unbeaten 47, switching to limited-overs mode as he ran out of partners, but Zimbabwe crumbled in an extended morning session.
Player of the Match: DP Conway. Player of the Series: MJ Henry.
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