Mulder in mix for Sri Lanka

The 13 players that produced very good cricket in beating Pakistan 3-0 in South Africa’s previous Test series have all been retained in the Proteas squad announced yesterday for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka that starts next week in Durban.

The selectors have, however, added all-rounder Wiaan Mulder to the squad, with the 20-year-old making an impressive return to action in the new year after injuring his left achilles tendon during the Proteas’ ODI series against Zimbabwe in September.

Mulder played three games for the Highveld Lions in the four-day competition, scoring 194 runs in four innings and taking 10 wickets to help his side snatch the title in dramatic fashion. He has already made his return to international cricket, bowling three tidy overs and claiming the wicket of the dangerous Shadab Khan as South Africa won the ODI series against Pakistan at Newlands.

Both venues for the Sri Lankan Tests – Kingsmead and St George’s Park – have shown a proclivity for dry surfaces that take turn, so the Proteas must surely aim to give their top-class spinner, Keshav Maharaj, more of a role than the one Test and 14 overs he had against Pakistan.

But knowing the preferred strategies of coach Ottis Gibson, a West Indian who grew up on a steady diet of all-conquering fast bowlers, South Africa may well also want to do the same against Sri Lanka, a team which does not handle bounce and seam movement well, having scored just four centuries in 13 Tests here.

In that case Mulder could earn a maiden Test cap in place of Theunis de Bruyn and Zubayr Hamza.

Captain Faf du Plessis returns to the starting XI after serving a suspension for slow over-rates in the last Test against Pakistan at the Wanderers. That means De Bruyn, Hamza and Mulder are probably fighting for a single place, while there is a chance all three could miss out if the selectors play Maharaj and the four pace bowlers who destroyed Pakistan, forcing wicketkeeper/batsman Quinton de Kock to move up to six and Vernon Philander at seven.