COVERING THE BASES
17-MAN SQUAD: MORRIS IN AMID RABADA UNCERTAINTY
Morkel, Olivier waiting in the wings ahead of ICC decision.
The national selectors yesterday announced an expanded squad of 17 players for the last two Tests against Australia, which is understandable given all the ifs and buts surrounding selection for the third Test in Cape Town which starts on Thursday.
Chief among the questions that need to be answered before the starting XI can be chosen is whether Kagiso Rabada is successful in his appeal against his two-match ban today. If history is made and the International Cricket Council admit to an error – their lack of consistency was further exposed this weekend by the meagre action taken against the Bangladesh and Sri Lankan teams following their fracas in Colombo – then South Africa should field an unchanged XI.
But if Rabada is absent, there is a school of thought that the Proteas need to replace him with two bowlers, given the size of the hole he leaves. But that would mean leaving out a batsman and the second bowler added to the team would surely need to be able to bat a bit, hence the return of Chris Morris to the squad.
Morris is seen as a bowling all-rounder and Wiaan Mulder as a batting all-rounder, so they offer two subtly different options in terms of balancing the team.
If team management are comfortable with a like-for-like replacement, then Morne Morkel will replace Rabada and Duanne Olivier, who has been recalled to the squad, would then be the back-up bowler in case of injury.
Batsman Temba Bavuma has been named in the squad but has still not played any competitive cricket since January 17, having not taken part in this weekend’s round of Sunfoil Series matches, as expected, due to what are believed to be personal family reasons.
Even if his fractured finger is now 100% fine, you would hardly expect a batsman with no middle time for two months to be thrown into the cauldron against Australia’s mighty attack, so if South Africa continue with seven batsmen then Theunis de Bruyn will surely play in his third consecutive Test for the first time in his career.
But with the series coming to a boil at 1-1, the tenacity and skill of Bavuma would have been very useful.