Proteas can afford to experiment
JOHANNESBURG: All this World Cup talk emanating from the Proteas camp may seem premature, given that there are still 18 months left before the start of the 12th edition of the tournament.
There are too many “unknowns”; the fitness of a host of players – particularly bowlers, the new coach is still being integrated and of course form, an unquantifiable trait that can only really be measured once the tournament begins, doesn’t bear measuring right now.
However the Proteas deserve some credit for at least being open about their intentions, particularly over the next year. South African captain Faf du Plessis and coach Ottis Gibson want to mix and match, tinker, and experiment with personnel and combinations. Players who perform well maybe dropped, just so that someone else can be tried and even within a match itself players could be tossed into unusual roles just to “give them a go” – as would have been the case for Andile Phehlukwayo on Kimberley on Sunday. Du Plessis said the young all-rounder may have come in at No 3 had either Hashim Amla or Quinton de Kock been dismissed.
It’s not the normal SA way of course all this chopping and changing, and perhaps that’s why Du Plessis and Gibson have been so public about their plans. SA cricket followers have grown accustomed to stability and consistency, so seeing their team change from week to week will be quite abnormal. But at this stage it is a more than useful exercise to engage in, especially for Gibson who may not be familiar with players outside of the core group who’ve been contracted the last few years.
So as well as Amla and De Kock played in Kimberley, one of them, most likely Amla will sit out at some point against Bangladesh to give Temba Bavuma a chance at the top of the order, the same will hold true for one of the middle-order batsmen with Farhaan Behardien waiting for an opportunity.
Might matches or even series’ be sacrificed in all this? Certainly, and that won’t go down well with those who believe every match is sacrosanct. However Du Plessis and Gibson will also demand of the public – and the many verbose former players – to remain patient, at least for the next year. This time next year SA are scheduled to play Australia in five ODIs Down Under and once that tour is completed, a clearer picture should emerge of the group that’s likely to head to England in the winter of 2019.
For now, Bangladesh are fodder for this SA team. They can afford to experiment by playing two similar seam bowling all-rounders in Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius – both of whom did a reasonable job in the first ODI, but in matches with higher stakes and against tougher opponents, really can’t be in the same starting XI.
Dane Patterson will hope he can deliver a better performance than 0/69 in nine overs, if given an opportunity in the second ODI in Paarl tomorrow (10am start).
Meanwhile, Bangladesh could do with the next two weeks passing as quickly as possible so they can just head home. They produced a decent effort with the bat on Sunday, which saw Mushfiqur Rahim make the country’s first century against SA and still they got hammered.
“We are doing everything possible. The result is not coming in our favour to keep mentality positive,” their skipper Mashrafe Mortaza said afterwards.
It appears one of their key bowlers, Mustafizur Rahman could miss the remainder of the tour owing to an ankle injury, while Tamim Iqbal may have to undergo a fitness test.