No room for Rickelton
• Stubbs and Bedingham get the nod from coach Conrad who points out a ‘lot can change in eight months’
“Ultimately,” says Shukri Conrad, “the buck stops with me.”
The SA cricket coach was explaining some of his selections in the Proteas Test squad for the series against India that starts on Boxing Day.
While the bowling unit picks itself, it is the batting where some contentious calls were made, most notably, again, the exclusion of Ryan Rickelton.
Eight months ago, Conrad spoke highly of the 27-year-old left-hander, despite Rickelton not doing enough in the second Test against the West Indies at the Wanderers.
“He will be a big part of the side, he will be one of those guys who, through performances domestically, [and] knowing his character, is someone we will start building the Test side around,” Conrad said in March.
Time has changed that perspective. “Eight months is a very long time,” Conrad remarked on Monday after naming his 15man squad. In that period Tristan Stubbs and David Bedingham forced a change in his thinking.
Bedingham had revealed he was happy to do an about-turn on his ambitions of chasing an England cap and proceeded to have had an outstanding season for Durham, helping them win the County Championship second division title. “To not have someone of Bedders’ quality in the squad, we’d have missed a trick. His performances domestically and for Durham have been phenomenal. He’s banged the door down,” Conrad said.
Bedingham scored more than 1,000 runs at an average of 56.61 making five centuries. Having been a favourite of the coach when the two worked together at Western Province, once Bedingham’s form matched his renewed desire for Proteas recognition it was always going to be hard for Conrad to ignore him.
Stubbs is a slightly different matter. Having made an impression as a limited-overs basher, earning a call-up to the T20 World Cup in 2022, he meticulously worked on his first-class game, having made earning a Test cap as a goal.
It was on a SA A tour to Sri Lanka in July, with Conrad also preparing that unit, that Stubbs made an impression.
“He just showed so much in that Sri Lanka tour and then since coming back [to SA].”
Stubbs scored a century in the second four-day “test” on that tour, an innings in which he batted for almost all day. That he didn’t see out the day was a regret for the 23-year-old but his character and technique were enough for Conrad to pick him for the India Test series.
His hundred for the Warriors last weekend, in their defeat of a Lions team featuring Rickelton was likely to have confirmed his selection, but it is still one that Conrad recognises is risky.
“I have to make a call and when I do so, it might not be in line with what I said eight months ago. But things change and as it stands right now I chose Bedingham and Stubbs ahead of Rickelton.”
● Temba Bavuma and Kagiso Rabada are the most notable absentees from the Proteas squads for the T20 and ODI series against India, with the selectors prioritising the two Test matches for their return later in December.
Bavuma, Rabada, Gerald Coetzee, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi will play in the December 14 round of four-day fixtures to help with their preparation for the first Test that starts in Centurion on Boxing Day.