The Zimbabwe national team will have to go through the first round of the upcoming COSAFA Cup tournament to be hosted by Namibia due to a poor ranking.

The draw is set to be held in Johannesburg from 2130 Hrs and will be shown live on Supersport Channel 204.

Zimbabwe will be seeded together in the first round with Malawi, Angola and Swaziland. The other teams in the first round are Madagascar, Lesotho, Mauritius and Seychelles.

There will be two groups of four in the first round and the top from each group will proceed to the quarterfinal stage to meet teams that have byes.

South Africa, DR Congo, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique are the teams that have received byes due to a better ranking.

Nambia also received a bye to the quarterfinals as defending champions.Zimbabwe and Zambia are the most successful nations at the tournament with 4 titles each.

Zimbabwe had a bad outing in 2015 crashing out in the first round.