It’s a fact -The Proteas field a better Test side than in T20 and One Day Internationals. This might sound fantastic to some patriotic South African cricket followers; that the Proteas take their Test cricket seriously, but it still doesn’t hide the obvious fact that it’s within the T20 and ODI Internationals that championships of nobilities are won.
So what could be the problem with our limited overs squad? What could be the reason or purpose in which led the Proteas to home series defeats against New Zealand in the ODIs and Pakistan in the T20s? The captaincy duties seemed to overwhelm Francois du Plessis in the recent T20 series defeat to Pakistan. Du Plessis was given the T20 International captaincy on a permanent basis despite him having only played less than 10 T20 International matches for the Proteas. This decision was undoubtedly a surprise to cricket analysts’ with him not having much if not any captaincy experience in this format of the game with his domestic team –the Nashua Titans. No matter how you project du Plessis’ captaincy situation in different angles, argue the fact that he’s a team leader or show off his T20 domestic and IPL stats –in conclusion the decision of him being given the T20 captaincy is appalling. There’s no reason why AB de Villiers can be South Africa’s ODI captain but not the T20 captain –especially in this time of need where the Proteas desperately are in need for an experienced T20 captain.
Highveld Lions’ Quinton de Kock has had a marvellous streak with the bat of recent. Opening his T20 RAM Slam T20 Challenge account with an unbeaten 126 against the Cape Cobras in Potchefstroom then scoring 47 in both clashes against the Nashua Titans and Chevrolet Warriors simply suggests the young talented wicket-keeper batsman should be utilized a little more efficiently in the Proteas squad. There was no reason why de Kock couldn’t open the batting with Henry Davids in the 2nd T20 match; leaving AB de Villiers in the middle order to stabilize the batting order. The fact that de Kock went on to score a well fought 65 runs in the warm-up game for the South African Invitational XI against the Pakistanis is even more of a mystery why he didn’t feature in the 2nd T20 International against Pakistan on March 3. With de Villiers opening the batting, in an inexperienced batting line up creates instability in the middle order –which then leads to an inconsistent flow to create genuine partnerships.
However the Proteas management can’t be blamed for introducing players who have performed in domestic cricket into the Proteas set-up. But that doesn’t mean that they should now have an influx of new breeds into the T20 squad. Creating a revolutionary team for championships in a certain format takes time –at most several seasons. The fact that the Proteas have an untouchable Test team is evident that their starting 11 is never tampered with unnecessarily. Jacques Kallis still plays IPL cricket in India for the Kolkata knights. Why can’t he play for his national team? We understand the necessities of him taking a break off cricket now and then; but the looks of recent performances by the Proteas –They dearly need him to be part of an inexperience Proteas T20 top order line-up. With that been mentioned, the introduction of new capped players should be done in an environment where its atmosphere is surrounded by senior players. Kyle Abbott’s T20 International debut against Pakistan wasn’t the most illustrious simply because he didn’t have a senior seam bowler guiding him through the different phases he would encounter with playing in the highest level of the game. If Dale Steyn were to have played (since Morne Morkel was injured) things might have been different. Not because of Steyn’s ability to put the Proteas in a commanding position, but his influence in a player like Abbott who in return –might have put the Proteas in a commanding situation against 95 runs-victorious Pakistan outfit on that tragic Sunday of March 3.
-Mandilulame Manjezi
@JizzyJakesTheIn
