His first seven balls were runless and at that point he was likely getting twitchy.
However once he found his feet Worker impressed in hitting 62 off 38 balls to win the man of the match award. He showed a liking for the leg side, struck four hefty sixes and was comfortably top scorer for New Zealand.
He became the fourth New Zealander to make a half century on T20 debut - following Scott Styris' 66 against Australia in the first official T20 at Eden Park in 2005, 63 by Aaron Redmond against Ireland in 2009 and 59 from Anton Devcich against Bangladesh two years ago.
Workers' score is the eighth highest individual T20 score on debut.
Captain Kane Williamson hit a quick 20 before being well caught at deep square leg by Craig Ervine, while fellow opener Martin Guptill made 33 before lifting a full toss straight to the fielder at long off. Wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi smeared a rapid 29; and Colin Munro and Nathan McCullum slapped an unbroken 41 off only 14 balls as New Zealand's innings ended with a roar.
New Zealand got 72 runs off the last six overs as Zimbabwe's bowlers lost their way.
Allrounder Sean Williams was the pick of them, finishing with three for 28 off his four overs of left arm spin.
Zimbabwe were given the task of overtaking the joint highest total made in Harare - New Zealand's total matched Pakistan's total on the ground in 2011 - if they were to register their first T20 win over New Zealand in six attempts.
They never looked remotely like threatening it.
Speedster Adam Milne, in his first game back since injury during the World Cup in March, was hostile in his four overs.
He dismissed opener Hamilton Masakadza with his ninth ball, and should have had Ervine next delivery but wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi dropped the chance to his left, appearing fractionally slow in his reactions to the pace of the delivery.
Milne clunked Ervine on his helmet shortly after and finished with two for 10, with 19 of his deliveries runless, and he'll be happy with his return to the national team.
There were wickets for Jimmy Neesham, with his first ball, Mitch McClenaghan and both spinners Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi.
Legspinner Sodhi spilled a return catch from Williams on 11 but then took a sharp one-hander from the same player to dismiss him five runs later. He conceded only 15 off his four overs while McClenaghan took two for 33.
Ervine top scored with 42 before being last man out in the final over, but Zimbabwe were so far off the pace from the start of the innings, and with wickets falling regularly, they had no hope.
New Zealand fly to South Africa for five limited-overs matches, starting with the opening T20 game at Durban next Friday.
