Pollock: Bangladesh don’t have the firepower to bowl us out twice
DURBAN: Despite the shockwaves reverberating around South African cricket circles after the Proteas’ shock defeat to Bangladesh, former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock has kept his feet firmly on the ground, saying he hopes the ODI series defeat will serve as a “major wake-up call”
While he was disappointed by the Proteas’ poor batting in the last two ODIs, Pollock is confident that the South Africans will reassert their traditional dominance over their opponents in the very different five-day format.
Pollock pointed out that although the Proteas would remain without their kingpin, AB de Villiers (absent on paternity leave), they would welcome back their trio of worldclass pacemen, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morné Morkel.
Asked whether the place of wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock was in doubt after his run of poor form in limited-overs cricket, Pollock said: “I’ve never been a supporter of those who judge a player’s form in one format by their record in another. De Kock has been integrated into the Test team and he will have the opportunity of playing himself back into form in a format where he can be more selective in his strokeplay.”
He expected skipper Hashim Amla to instruct his batsmen to “go back to the basics” of accumulating runs and building partnerships, a process they are all familiar with.
“There’s no doubt that Bangladesh have improved, but Test cricket is a different ball game and I don’t think they have the firepower to bowl us out twice.”
Nevertheless, the ODIs showed that the team were badly exposed by the absence of De Villiers, and it will be a major challenge for the other batsmen to compensate for his loss in the Tests. There are also concerns about the team’s loss of experience with their offspinner, Simon Harmer, having only played one Test while the identity of Dean Elgar’s partner – either Reeza Hendricks or Stiaan van Zyl – at the top of the order has still to be made clear.
In fact, Hendricks, Van Zyl and two other contenders, Harmer and left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso, have played a total of six Tests between them which hardly engenders confidence against a country that has suddenly developed a rich vein of confidence at home after successive limited-overs series victories over New Zealand, Pakistan and India.
Proteas coach Russell Domingo said yesterday: “There may have been complacency among the public and the media back home, but never among the players.
“We knew that we faced tough opponents who were on an upswing.”