Still experimenting ahead to see which Proteas will bloom

THERE ARE seven One-day Internationals coming up in which South Africa will continue with their experimentation over team selections.

Since Ottis Gibson’s appointment as national cricket coach a little less than a year ago, the selection of the Proteas’ limited overs sides has been conducted with the World Cup in mind. He needed to look at players he wasn’t familiar with and the selection panel needed to establish exactly which players and what team structure might work in England next year.

AB de Villiers’ international retirement threw a major spanner in the works, but the series in Sri Lanka which ends at the Premadasa Stadium today (11am SA time start), has largely been a success and helped to allay concerns that De Villiers’ absence would be catastrophic as far as SA’S challenge in England next year is concerned.

It’s still a huge hole to try and fill, but South Africa have had to be pragmatic. The shift of Faf du Plessis to the No4 batting spot is the move they’ve made as far as taking AB’S old position is concerned, while throwing in a rookie at No 3.

In the case of Aiden Markram, his struggles in Sri Lanka across all formats opened the door for Reeza Hendricks who’s bought himself some time in that position with a century on debut.

Du Plessis, who arrived back in South Africa on Friday, implied that there will be more tinkering over the course of series’ at home against Zimbabwe and then the three matches in Australia in November.

In the case of the batting it’s a case of seeing if Hendricks can sustain his good start, while Markram will hope conditions less favourable to spin may open the door for a return to the team for him. Whatever the personnel, the selectors, Du Plessis and Gibson, want something approaching the 15man World Cup squad to be in action for the two home series, against Pakistan and Sri Lanka early in the new year. The batting is probably more of a concern than the bowling, mainly because the latter has so many options. The selectors must hope Hashim Amla will rekindle his best form ahead of the World Cup just to provide them with confidence that it will be okay to continue with a rookie at No 3, while that No 3 will need to build his own confidence.

The bowling issues fall into the category of “nice headaches to have”. There are lots of options from the seam bowling all-rounders to the outright fast bowlers. Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi have been outstanding in Sri Lanka, and Du Plessis highlighted how Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn remain in the selectors’ thoughts, while Chris Morris provides an extra option as an all-rounder.

The two youngsters who’ve played in Sri Lanka, Wiaan Mulder and Andile Phehlukwayo, have equipped themselves very well, taking lessons from poor starts, and showing improvement the more opportunities they’ve been given.

Depending on his fitness, Morris will hope he’ll be given an opportunity against Zimbabwe and Australia and the same could be said of Philander, who despite all the talk of him being in contention for the World Cup hasn’t played an ODI in nearly three years.

The Sri Lankan series has at least allowed SA to continue their World Cup preparation off a positive base, something not possible after they were thumped by India at the start of the year.