25 September 2019, by: Rohit Sankar of CricXtasy

South Africa’s Blueprint for the T20 World Cup

A handful of interesting decisions were made by Cricket South Africa for the tour of India and they, in a way, underline the vision the management has for the T20 World Cup coming up next year.

A sneak peek into each of them gives insights into how South Africa plans to approach another multi-nation ICC tournament.

• Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Dale Steyn ignored.

• Quinton de Kock appointed T20I skipper, Rassie van der Dussen made vice-captain.

• Mzansi Super League and CSA T20 Challenge performers rewarded.

  Enoch Nkwe appointed as interim team manager with Lance Klusener, Vincent Barnes and Justin Ontong as coaches.

• JJ Smuts replaced for not meeting side’s fitness standards.

• Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram, Theunis de Bruyn ignored to allow them to play in South Africa A four-day games.

Some of these decisions might appear downright bizarre on paper. Steyn and Tahir share the honour of South Africa’s top wicket-taker in the format. Yet, neither of them finds a place in the squad. Tahir is plying his trade in the Caribbean Premier League and should make a comeback into the setup although he is out of a CSA entral contract.

What Ngidi, Markram and de Bruyn’s non-selection showed was that South Africa are focused on the long-format games on this tour. The T20I squad was basically an amalgam of the stable players who aren’t at the twilight of their career and a mix of local T20 stars. By handing additional responsibilities to de Kock and van der Dussen, South Africa were hoping to groom the next line of leaders.

Temba Bavuma, who shone in the CSA T20 Challenge and MSL, is another earmarked for captaincy. He made telling contributions from number 3 in the T20Is against India and should be a part of the setup going forward.

De Kock, meanwhile, showed immense signs of form and has enjoyed captaincy so far, but does he take over from du Plessis before the T20 World Cup? It isn’t an unlikely proposition at the moment.

In terms of the outliers, fitness and coaching standards have been given priorities. Smuts was dumped unceremoniously after being picked because he didn’t meet fitness standards. With the appointments of Klusener, Barnes and Ontong, CSA were hoping to bring in wholesale changes to modify how the team functions.

On paper at least, there are 30 players right now who are being seen as potential contenders for a place in the T20 World Cup squad in october next year.

Splitting them into five categories is ideal to analyse where the squad is at right now.

• The senior guns – Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Chris Morris (who made himself unavailable for this series but is definitely not out of white-ball cricket) and Faf du Plessis.

• The senior stable players at the peak – Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Temba Bavuma, Kagiso Rabada, Andile Phehlukwayo.

• The new guys who have impressed – Lungi Ngidi, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Beuran Hendricks, Lutho Sipamla.

• The relatively untested lot – Bjoin Fortuin, Anrich Nortje, George Linde, Junior Dala, Dwaine Pretorius, JJ Smuts.

• The fringe players outside the current squad – Sinethemba Qeshile, Janneman Malan, Gihahn Cloete, Heinrich Klaasen, Theunis de Bruyn, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Wiaan Mulder, Ryan Rickelton.

That’s 30 players who are at the moment seen as potential options. The last section, at least, could expand or shrink after the upcoming MSL season.

For the India tour, South Africa chose to completely ignore the senior lot. This was to be a test for the next line of senior players and by levelling the series, they impressed enough to suggest South Africa are on the right track.

A few surprise omissions were Lutho Sipamla and Heinrich Klaasen, but the two are considered potential options at a later stage. This is just the beginning of the testing phase and South Africa have enough time to fine tune their candidates for the World Cup.

An initial glance at the 30-man list, though, reeks of promise but there are a lot of unknowns in here and unless South Africa do the ‘pressure test’ (expose them to International cricket and give them responsibilities) you would never know who can climb up the rung quick enough.

The India series fulfilled this. The FTP for them includes T20I series’ against England and Australia with a few more likely to be arranged after the MSL. There is time to test the unknown and arrive at a good blend of youth and experience.

Give the 30-man team a good mix in a bowl and a possible 15 for the T20 World Cup – were it to be staged now – might appear like this:

Possible squad: Quinton de Kock (c and wk), Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Beuran Hendricks, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir. Reserves: Lutho Sipamla, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, Bjoin Fortuin.

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