A doughty wicketkeeper-batter, Regis Chakabva came up in Zimbabwe cricket through Highfields, Churchill, on to Takashinga, provincial cricket, and eventually, regular appearances in the national teams.

Chakabva represented Zimbabwe in the Afro-Asia Under-19 Cup in 2005, but despite the rebel crisis and subsequent player drain, had to queue up behind the likes of Tatenda Taibu, Brendan Taylor and Richmond Mutumbami for a place in the senior sides. Though he had a disappointing run during the Pakistan Cricket Academy's visit in 2008, he was included in Zimbabwe's squad for their trip to Canada soon afterwards and made his international debut in a T20I against Pakistan in King City. His ODI debut came a week later back in Africa, in the Kenya Tri-Nation tournament, against the hosts.

In 2011, Chakabva made it into the Test XI for the one-off Test against New Zealand in November, but the pivotal point in his career came two years later. In a Logan Cup match against Mid West Rhinos, he cruised to an almost chanceless 240 - his first double-hundred, and the third-highest individual score in the history of the tournament. A grade cricket contract with Farleigh Magpies in Queensland, Australia, followed, marking the beginning of a bountiful year in 2014, in the course of which Chakabva added three more hundreds for Mashonaland Eagles before the end of the season.

He was one of the few bright points of Zimbabwe's tour of Bangladesh late that year, with a maiden Test century and two fifties. In the two landmark white-ball home series against Bangladesh in 2022, both of which Zimbabwe won, Chakabva starred with his first ODI hundred, in a game where he and Sikandar Raza rescued their team from 49 from 4 to take them to a win in a chase of 291.

Chakabva served as Zimbabwe white-ball captain for a spell in 2022, including in the ODI in Townsville where they beat Australia for the first time in any format.