Zimbabwe’s cricketers soaked in the surreal scenes, lapping it up in front of their giddy supporters at Trent Bridge in the aftermath of the one-off Test against England.

After finally getting a chance against a powerhouse nation in Test cricket, performing credibly to arrest early nerves, the wide grins from the players matched the expressions from their expat compatriots who had long doubted they would ever get so close to their heroes.

The result hardly mattered. For the record, Zimbabwe lost by an innings and 45 runs in the four-day Test against an England team tuning up for a blockbuster, legacy-defining stretch of Test cricket.

It was a resumption of bilateral ties between the countries after 21 years and the first Test they’ve played against each other since 2003. This drought-breaking match had been a decade in the making.

While Zimbabwe have played powers India and Australia in white-ball series, they have been given the cold shoulder by them in Test cricket for two decades.

ForbesPlaying Powerhouse England In Test Cricket Has Been Years In The Making For ZimbabweBy Tristan Lavalette

While they were outclassed, unsurprisingly given their lack of experience in Test cricket, Zimbabwe worked their way into the match after conceding the most runs on the first day of a Test in England having unwisely opted to bowl.

But Zimbabwe showed plenty of resiliency after that and class too with Brian Bennett smashing his country’s fastest Test hundred, while Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza – both almost 40 years old who were playing a Test for the first time against a ‘big three’ nation – showed plenty of fight.

Zimbabwe weren’t able to seriously threaten England, but they won admirers and showed glimpses of what they are capable of. That’s if they can get a good run of Test cricket and start regularly playing the best nations.

For a myriad of reasons, from internal woes to political chaos amid dictator Robert Mugabe’s reign to reluctance from the bigger nations to play them, Zimbabwe only played 36 Tests from late 2005 – their last against India – to the end of 2024.

Zimbabwe are not in the nine-team World Test Championship and have had to mostly resort to playing Afghanistan and Ireland – the other countries not part of the tournament.

But Zimbabwe are playing 11 this year – the equal most alongside Australia – to underline their determination of being a good Test nation. However, there are no Test fixtures against England, Australia or India on the horizon.

It’s challenging for Zimbabwe and other smaller nations to host Test cricket. According to Zimbabwe Cricket, it costs $500,000 to host a match – large sums for a nation with a miniscule domestic broadcast deal of $2.5 million per year compared to billion-dollar deals of England, India and Australia.

Zimbabwe and other smaller nations also get less funding from the International Cricket Council compared to the power trio.

England’s governing body might have provided the blueprint after helping cover some tour costs for Zimbabwe, whose administrators have been using this Test match to discuss possible opportunities to host them in the next cycle of 2027-31.

Zimbabwe, having become a major destination for cricket, do have plans to entice the power countries. They hope to become a stopover when those countries visit nearby South Africa although no fixtures have been ironed out yet.

There have long been fears over the traditional five-day Test cricket and its relevance in a faster-paced modern world, where attention spans are dwindling. There is an ICC committee in the works with a strong focus over this thorny issue, especially with the ‘big three’ increasingly wanting to play against themselves.

But as gleaned at Trent Bridge amid the color and emotion emanating from the terraces, Test cricket needs smaller nations to flourish and emerge beyond India, England and Australia.

After two decades in the wilderness, Zimbabwe finally made a step onto the big stage.

Let’s hope it’s not their last.