NAGPUR, India - Canada plays Zimbabwe at the World Cup on Monday hoping its young players get the kind of experience necessary to excel in a very different type of cricket.

The Group A match is one of only two Canada has any real hope of winning, but with little chance of progress and almost certain exclusion from the next 50-over tournament, Canada is looking ahead to the 2012 World Twenty20.

With a win over England in 2009, the Netherlands has shown that the second-tier ICC Associate nations have a better chance of progress in the shorter game.

The International Cricket Council's decision to reduce the one-day World Cup from 14 to 10 nations from 2015 will do few favours to a group of Canadian players with few chances to get the sort of experience and exposure necessary to spread the game to a wider domestic audience.

But with the Netherlands' win over England in 2009 having shown that the second-tier ICC Associate nations have a chance in the shorter Twenty20 format, Canada captain Ashish Bagai wants a squad containing five under-19 players to make use of the sort of experience they will get against Zimbabwe in Nagpur.

"It is a great experience for my youngsters to be in this situation," Bagai said. "All these youngsters are highly talented but they don't have the experience at this level. There are things you can coach, but it's all about having the experience and getting that belief that they can also compete against the top players.

"This experience they will definitely take to improve in the future.

And the future for Canada is likely to feature Twenty20 prominently.

"Cricket is growing in Canada in a big way with lots of south Asians moving in there," Bagai said. "Definitely in the T20 version we are going to do everything we can to build up a big team in time for the next World Cup."

For now, Canada must deal with a Zimbabwe side short on batting but with a spin attack that troubled No. 1-ranked Australia in an opening match the defending champions won by 91 runs.

"We really plan the whole game," Bagai said. "The problem is, 'do we have the person to make it happen on the ground?"'

Bagai said some of the team's older players were dehydrated in an opening 210-run defeat to Sri Lanka in Hambantota. The likes of 40-year-old batsman John Davison should cope better with the conditions at Nagpur's VCA Ground.

Davison, Bagai and Henry Osinde are the survivors in the Canada side from the only previous one-day international meeting between the teams, which Zimbabwe won five years ago by 143 runs in neutral Port of Spain.

Wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor excelled for Zimbabwe in that match with 37, one catch and three run outs, while Prosper Utseya was remarkably economical with 1-10 from eight overs. Both should be in the lineup again Monday.

Zimbabwe will focus again on spin for the match despite the Nagpur wicket showing little turn in the two matches played upon it so far.

"I don't think we can change even if the opposition knows what we are going to do," captain Elton Chigumbura said. "But at the end of the day, it's about how you execute your plans."

Coach Alan Butcher concurred.

"Our spin department is our strength," he said. "Why would we go away from that?"