Mbangwa's rise to prominence was all the more remarkable as he had no family background in cricket. A little short of the top pace, he was primarily a line-and-length bowler, using both seam and swing, with the away-swinger his stock ball. He spent a year at school in England, and in 1996 he went to Madras for coaching by
Dennis Lillee at the
MRF Pace Foundation; on his return he was offered a place in the Plascon Academy in South Africa, which he attended from April to September 1996. But thereafter he struggled to maintain consistency, and his lack of pace meant that he was easy picking for international batsmen. He drifted in and out of the side, before disappearing from the international scene. He was also well known for his brief yet important unbeaten innings of four runs in a
Test match against Sri Lanka in 1998 batting at number 10 where his resilient patient innings at the crease helped
Andy Flower to score Test century, meanwhile on the other hand
Muttiah Muralitharan and
Sanath Jayasuriya were still threatening with the ball. Zimbabwe had lost eight wickets in that innings when Andy Flower was still in the crease on 91. Andy Flower also fondly referred to him as "Pomster" during the match when he urged Pommie to not throw his wicket away while Flower was nearing the milestone. He was one of international cricket's genuine No. 11s although he was also named in one of the worst tailenders XI in Rest cricket for being involved with nine ducks in 25 innings batting at 11. He also featured in the
1999 Cricket World Cup where Zimbabwe progressed to super six stage. He also then played for Zimbabwe at the
2002 ICC Champions Trophy. He ended up his 6 year international career playing for Zimbabwe following the 2002 Champions Trophy and then moved to England to pursue his higher studies for a brief period of time. He also played for
Matabeleland cricket team in the
Logan Cup from 1996 to 2004. In 2001 he started television commentary, where his quiet thoughtful views were well received, and in 2005 he ended a brief foray into coaching by committing full-time to his TV career. He worked as a commentator with
SuperSport and
Star Sports and has notably served as one of the commentators during the
2015 Cricket World Cup,
2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier and
2019 Cricket World Cup. He is also a regular commentator in franchise T20 leagues such as
Indian Premier League and
Pakistan Super League. == Outside cricket ==