More variety in better balanced Proteas line-up
SEVEN bowling options and batting down to eight – might the Proteas have stumbled on to the right balance for the starting team in limited-overs cricket?
Conditions at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo aren’t weighted drastically in favour of spinners – it’s not Kanpur in 2008 or Nagpur in 2015 – but it is slow, and thus it helps to have as many options as possible.
Keshav Maharaj, standing in as captain for the injured Temba Bavuma in the second one-day international against Sri Lanka on Saturday, had that in the shape of three front-line spinners – himself included – and the part-time off-spin of Aiden Markram, which he didn’t need.
The Proteas have battled with the balance of the starting team for much of the duration of Mark Boucher’s tenure as coach. There’s an argument that problems with balance stems back to the 2015 World Cup. It’s a question of batting depth, while giving the captain more than just five options to call on with the ball.
The search for the right balance has taken the team and selectors on some interesting journeys, none more so than the fourth T20 international against Pakistan earlier this year when the starting XI contained just four front-line batsmen, but eight bowling options.
On Saturday, the team had a better balance. Of course with the bat, much is dependent on the top order, but that is always the case on the sub-continent.
South Africa’s two openers, Markram and the prodigious Janneman Malan, have been excellent in the series so far.
They have provided a foundation and the middle order, despite getting into a muddle in the opening match, have played off that platform reasonably well.
There were problems with the new ball in the opening game, with neither Kagiso Rabada nor Anrich Nortje finding the right lengths, but Rabada rectified that on Saturday with a wonderful opening spell that, on the back of Malan’s century, ripped the game away from the Sri Lankans.