We missed the experience of the seniors, rues Gibson

We missed the experience of the seniors, rues Gibson

India’s terrific comeback in the limited-overs series – they clinched the One-Day International series (5-1) and Twenty20 International series (2-1) after a 1-2 loss in the Tests was an eye-opener for the South Africans.

But Ottis Gibson, South Africa’s head coach, who spoke to the media after India’s seven-run victory in the third T20I in Cape Town on Saturday (February 24), wasn’t too disturbed by the result.

“If you see, some of our guys got injured,” he said. “The new guys that came in, the level and the intensity they have had to perform is different from what they have been accustomed to and they haven’t stepped up to and haven’t been able to adapt quickly enough. We’ve seen some exciting new talent.

“We have seen exciting new players in the one-day series. Lungi (Ngidi) made a debut, Heinrich Klaasen made his debut and he has been excellent, Junior Dala in this T20I series was also very good, and we saw a little bit of Christiaan Jonker. He was very good,” he added. “Losing is not always very easy. But when you are missing so many of your seniors, and then some new people come in and put their names forward, the result can be hard to take. You obviously look at the future and the future, with some of the youngsters, seems like is going to be bright.”

AB de Villiers, one of the senior players missing in action, is expected to be back for the Test series against Australia, which should provide the South African camp with some confidence.

“Seniors in any team makes it stronger,” said Gibson. “Especially the seniors we have coming back in the team. It has been a massive loss without them being there. We all thought that AB’s body is better than what it was in ODIs. I hope he is somewhere near 100% and he can take place in his team. Even Dale Steyn is not far away again. So we missed the seniors in this series, no doubt about that. Having them back will give everybody a lift.”

Gibson also stressed on the importance of some of the players going back to the hard grind of domestic cricket to fix the few chinks in their armour.

“I think you remember before I got back, all the players were asked to play domestic cricket. So I am a big fan of strong domestic league or tournaments that will then produce better players for international cricket. If you have international cricketers not performing, then I’d think domestic cricket would be the place to go back and raise the standard of cricket so that it becomes a little bit better,” he said. “Those guys who haven’t performed in this series have done well in the past. They have been big players in the past and people can always be out of form – that is part of the spot. It is how you bounce back and the attitude that you have toward practicing and preparation that will help you to get back where you want to be and where you belong in terms of your form. So it is just about those guys being very clear in their minds of what exactly they want to do and I will help them along the way.”

Chris Morris, for instance, was one of the players who Gibson insisted would need to find his form by playing domestic cricket.

 

“He would go back to play some domestic cricket,” Gibson revealed. “There is the IPL, whenever it starts, I am not sure when it starts. But before that, he has got some domestic cricket to go which will help him get some consistency in his bowling. He is a match-winner. We had a conversation, myself and him. I am not telling you anything that I haven’t told him. So he just needs to find what type of bowler he wants to become and put practice in that and work in to become that person.”

Speaking on what was the main difference in the two camps, Gibson highlighted the lack of experience in South Africa’s camp in the limited-over games.

“Experience. India have got (Jasprit) Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, two very experienced players,” he pointed out. “We’ve got (Chris) Morris and Junior Dala, who is making his debut. The experience they have of playing not just for India but also playing three or four years of IPL cricket shows. Junior held his own very well, but Morris has got a lot of work to do.”

Looking ahead, Gibson said there would probably be different types of pitches laid out for the upcoming series against Australia.

“Well, it is a different opposition, so therefore, the sort of make-up of the team will be different,” he said. “We have to get to Durban and see what the wicket is going to be like. I think the last time we tried to speak to the groundsman, everybody knows what happened at the Wanderers. So we’ve left the groundsman to prepare the best possible pitches they can get this time and see what happens.”

The first Test between South Africa and Australia will be played in Durban from March 1.

Klaasen, Mulder named in squad for Australia Tests

Klaasen, Mulder named in squad for Australia Tests

Heinrich Klaasen was rewarded for his strong performances in limited-overs for South Africa with a maiden call-up to the Test squad for the home series against Australia, Cricket South Africa announced on Saturday (February 24).

Apart from the wicketkeeper-batsman, Wiaan Mulder, the allrounder, is the other uncapped player in the squad. The duo replaces Andile Phehlukwayo and Chris Morris from the squad that faced India.

Both of them have excelled in the domestic first-class tournament. Klaasen raked up 292 runs from six innings, including two hundreds, before being called up for international duty in coloured clothing. Mulder has scored 370 runs this season from nine innings and has also picked up 15 wickets from 11 innings with his right-arm seam bowling.

Called in as a replacement for the injured Quinton de Kock in the ODIs, Klaasen scored 110 runs from four innings at 36.66 against India. In the two Twenty20 Internationals so far, he has scored 85, including a match-winning 69 in the second game.

“Klaasen has been tremendously impressive in the white-ball matches he has played for the Proteas and we firmly believe he can become just as good a player in the five-day format,” said Linda Zondi, National Selection Panel Convener. “He has averaged nearly 50 with the bat in Sunfoil four-day cricket this season and hit two centuries. We are also keen to have a backup wicketkeeper to De Kock in the squad.

“The selection of Mulder continues our strategy to expand our pool of all-rounders against top quality opposition. He is a batting all-rounder and his selection will depend on how we decide to balance our starting XI. He has been the top all-rounder in the Sunfoil Series with a batting average of 60 (one century) and 15 wickets at an average of 28,” he added. “It has been very exciting this season to see the way young players have settled into the various Proteas squads and done well and this is a continuation of that policy.”

If either of the two players makes their debut, they will be the 100th player to represent South Africa since their readmission to international cricket post-apartheid in 1992. Overall, 334 players have represented the country so far since they played Test cricket first in 1889.

AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock, all of whom have been grappling with niggles and minor injuries, have been deemed fit to make it to the Test squad.

The first Test between the sides will be played starting March 1 in Durban.

South Africa Test squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungisani Ngidi, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.

South Africa scraping the barrel in more ways than one

South Africa scraping the barrel in more ways than one

The way things are going, South Africa will be lucky to have a fully fit international-class team on the park by the time their six-match One-Day International series against India draws to a close. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but injuries have hit South Africa hard. They started the series without AB de Villiers for the first three ODIs, lost Faf du Plessis after the first ODI and then lost Quinton de Kock after the second. It may be only three players, but those are three that are practically irreplaceable.

As a result, South Africa will be heading into the third ODI at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday (February 7) as the definite underdogs. A month ago, both teams had arrived at the same venue with the home side the favourite in what promised to be an exciting Test series. The long format lived up to its promise, but while much the same was expected in 50-overs cricket, South Africa’s crippling injuries have made it one-way traffic so far.

That is not the only thing that has changed in a month. Newlands is still one of the prettiest venues in the world, and the Table Mountain still provides a backdrop like no other — but it’s parched. The lush outfield has hints of brown appearing all over, and the water crisis that had hit the city has only worsened. The rationing of water has gone from 80 litres per day down to 50 litres in households, and the outfield hasn’t been able to be watered everyday due to the severe water shortage and consequent restrictions.

“We all know that there is a drought here and we respect that,” said Shikhar Dhawan on Tuesday. “We are aware that we have to save as much water as we can, because people need it. We respect that.”

Borewell water has been used to water the pitch, which is also going to be a completely different animal than the seaming, bouncing track that was dished out for the first Test. Even Flint, the curator, indicated that the ODI deck would be a normal one, with runs for the taking.

Teams (from):

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur.

South Africa: Aiden Markram (capt), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungisani Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khaya Zondo, Farhaan Behardien, Heinrich Klaasen (wk).

Whether that translates into South Africa actually getting the runs remains to be seen. They have read Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav worse than a third grader handed an advanced calculus book, and though a variety of wrist-spinners were pressed into action at the team’s nets on match eve, you can’t really expect net bowlers to replicate the level of skill and control that India’s spinners have.

Kagiso Rabada, one of the few players from the home side to have held his own with the team floundering, said that the multiple injuries could be a ‘blessing in disguise’ in terms of widening the pool of players to choose from. “It gives other players are chance,” said the pacer. “We’ve got players who have been playing in franchise cricket for a while and doing pretty well. Those three names that have dropped out of the team are pretty much irreplaceable at the moment. So, it just gives guys a chance to widen the pool so other players can experience international cricket. Widening the pool is great. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.”

India’s playing XI looks settled and primed, which means there should be no changes unless fitness issues crop up. South Africa will be handing a debut to Heinrich Klaasen, the Titans wicketkeeper who had been added to the squad after the first ODI. With de Kock ruled out now, Klaasen finds himself the only wicketkeeper in the squad. He has been in good form in the domestic one-dayers, which will help him, but tackling India’s bowling attack will be a different challenge altogether. Given de Kock’s injury, it also looks likely that Aiden Markram will push himself up the order to open alongside Hashim Amla.

It’s been a rough initiation for Markram as a captain, though if he wanted a test by fire to understand all the extreme pressures of captaincy, he’s certainly getting a crash course.

The forecast for the match is sunny skies, which would ordinarily be good news for cricket. For the South African team, and the Cape Town residents in particular, that is far from welcome. A spell of rain and a washed out match may be just what the team requires to get their bearings back, while it’s certainly what the city requires to start getting itself back on its feet.