Zimbabwe cricket team captain Brendan Taylor wants his side to quickly find their best form as they seek to avoid a whitewash against India in the fourth One Day International at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo today. The home side are aware they have lots of work to do following an uninspiring show in the first leg of the series played in Harare last week.

India have since wrapped up the series with two matches remaining after taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the opening games at Harare Sports Club. The series has now moved to Bulawayo for the last two matches, which Zimbabwe are now playing to minimise the damage and to preserve national pride.

Zimbabwe had their first practice in Bulawayo on Tuesday and Taylor said they would need to put behind them the disappointment they have suffered during the early stage of this tour.

"Obviously there is a lot of work to be done. Hopefully our game will come up," said Taylor. The Zimbabweans have been struggling with their batting in particular and the skipper will also be looking to improve his game. It has been a collective failure by the team and Taylor has only managed 35 runs during the last three matches of the series.

Assistant coach Steve Mangongo also challenged the top order batsmen to get big scores as Zimbabwe have been unable to lay solid foundations in their innings.

The batting failure, which was manifest in both teams, has been attributed to the morning bowler friendly conditions at the Harare Sports Club which made life difficult for the team batting first. Mangongo said there were not likely to be major changes to the team. But it appears Malcom Waller will not have his place guaranteed as it appears form has deserted him of late.

"Usually we play with two spinners at Queens Sports Club. The ground has a good batting track and hopefully our batters will come up," said Mangongo. Zimbabwe lost the first match by six wickets before slumping to a 58-run defeat in the second. Last Sunday's seven-wicket loss rendered the last two matches in Bulawayo dead rubbers. The fifth and final ODI will be played at Queens Sports Club on Saturday.