Opening batsman Hashim Amla will continue to be absent from the South African squad as the veteran is yet to recover completely from his finger injury. South Africa are set to announce their squad for a short limited-overs series in Australia where they will play three ODIs and one T20I next month and Amla will sit out of it after missing the recently-concluded series against Zimbabwe.
Amla suffered the injury during the Carribean Premier League and was initially advised three weeks rest following which Dean Elgar replaced him for the Zimbabwe series. While Elgar registered scores of 2 and 4, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks impressed in the third game with one of them now expected to partner the returning Quinton de Kock at the top of the order.
“There are a lot of guys we have in our thoughts who will be in the squad to Australia,” Ottis Gibson said on Sunday (October 14). “Hashim is injured, he is out of the squad already, as a selection group we have already discussed that with him. We want to give him as much time as possible for him to get ready for the next set of cricket that he has coming up.”
“We know that Quinny and Hashim has been a fantastic opening pair for the Proteas for a long time, and we also know that Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram have also been very good in franchise cricket,” Gibson noted. “The wickets at the start of the series, especially in one-day cricket were a bit tough for batting, so from that point of view we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked, but we know where we are with those two.”
Gibson also confirmed that the side will stop looking at various options with the World Cup fast approaching. Following injuries to some first-choice players and with AB de Villiers retiring, South Africa had handed opportunities to some players to make a mark but the core group will be trimmed to 17-18 players by the time they host Sri Lanka and Pakistan this home season.
“For the last 12 months we have been looking at players,” Gibson pointed out. “In the next couple of months the window is closing, the players have been told that the window is closing all the time. We are getting closer and closer to the guys that we want on the journey. In the Pakistan and Sri Lanka series we want to be focusing on a core of 17 to 18 players we will be looking at.”
Gibson was also pleased with the comebacks of veterans Imran Tahir and Dale Steyn against Zimbabwe. While Tahir has remained South Africa’s first-choice spinner in limited-overs, selectors decided to rest him for the Sri Lankan tour in July-August this year in order to give Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj some game time. Steyn, on the other hand, wasn’t part of their ODI plans for a while and finally made an impressive comeback to the 50-over setup after almost two years.
“We have given Tahir time off to allow us to see other players and he has come back and shown us why he is our number one,” Gibson said. “I know what Rabada and Ngidi can do but for me the real excitement was watching Dale Steyn bowling in the second game in Bloemfontein. It was fantastic to see him back to that level again, bowling quickly with that skill and accuracy. That is the real exciting part for me.”
