Jairos Tapera is expected to shuffle the team that started the 2026 World Cup defeat to Lesotho, when the Warriors take on South Africa at Free State Stadium tomorrow.
Zimbabwe were uninspiring in their shock 2-0 defeat to surprise Group C leaders Crocodiles at Orlando Stadium last Friday.
Now sitting at the basement of an open six-team group, they will need to quickly respond by getting the maximum points against Bafana Bafana in Bloemfontein.
The squad left South Africa's commercial hub for Free State early yesterday morning and were expected to conduct their first training session late in the afternoon, having rested on Saturday.
All eyes will be on how Tapera will deploy his team after a catalogue of calamitous errors in all departments were punished by the hungry Crocodiles last Friday.
The Manica Diamonds gaffer has since revealed that he will ring changes in his playing staff and indicated that he will hand debuts to some of the players in the squad.
"We were disappointed with the result against Lesotho. We played good football but we often switched off when it mattered and we were duly punished.
"But we can't continue to cry over spilt milk with the battle against South Africa beckoning," said Tapera.
"Yes, we will need to play around the squad and certainly, we will make some changes. If you look at different areas in the field of play, judging from the manner with which we played against Lesotho, you will see that we really need to tinker with the team a bit.
"The changes won't be wholesale though, but we definitely need to do so. All the players are doing well and everyone is eager to perform to the best of their abilities and that is a healthy situation to have in the camp.
"Everyone is motivated and we will see how we come up with the changes when we face South Africa on Tuesday (tomorrow)".
Tapera could hand starting berths to goalkeeper Martin Mapisa after Donavan Bernard's disappointing outing against Lesotho.
Bernard's horror afternoon wasn't helped by the tired approach from centre-backs Gerald Takwara and Teenage Hadebe.
This could see Tapera drafting in Godknows Murwira and Munashe Garan'anga, both tried and tested cadres.
There could also be prospects for Ngezi Platinum Stars midfield workhorse Richard Hachiro, who often brings what Andy Rinomhota dismally failed to deliver last Friday.
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"Without any doubt, we are looking at shuffling in the defensive third as well as in the midfield and see what works. We will train in Bloemfontein and that will guide us in seeing what could work for us. We are fully focused on the task at hand and hopefully we will be able to constrict South Africa.
"We have been in South Africa for long enough and we have fully acclimatised to conditions here and there is no reason why we should be bullied in the field of play. We have quality players coming from all over the world and that gives us wings going into the showdown against South Africa."
Bafana Bafana managed to pick a point against Nigeria on Friday in Uyo and they will go into the game against the Warriors with so much belief.
But their schedule hasn't been as kind as the Warriors'. South Africa have travelled over 9 000km to and from Nigeria, while Zimbabwe have been in South Africa and those margins could work in the away team's favour.
Obviously we are not as fatigued as South Africa," said Tapera.
"We are in good condition and we should fully focus when we troop into the field of play against Bafana Bafana."
Zimbabwe sit at the foot of the table with two points while Lesotho, who are on five points, lead the standings going into the match day three of the qualifiers with a place in Canada, Mexico and the United States of America to fight for.
Benin and Rwanda are the other teams in Group C of the qualifiers.
