There are some facts that we must accept in recent developments and we are far away from where SA cricket should be - so let us look at some of those:-
The Captaincy Issue
This has been around now for a while now and has been bothersome. The problem was two-fold and relates to -
* the weird situation that Du Plessis could not win tosses to save his life; amd
* the real situation as to his performance record as a player.
Even though in the WC case the performance of Du Plessis from a batting perspective was acceptable the real problem was that in the games since the WC his batting performances were sub-standard and the fact is that he is in the team as a batsman. If he failed as a batsman there is a major problem in evidence,
Apparently SARU and Du Plessis thought that the extra load as Captain impacts on his batting and by mutual agreement he relinquished his role as captain so as to concentrate on his batting, Since then he played in the two T20I matches against Australia and there was no notable improvement in his batting performance thus far.
The replacement of Du Plessis was also a problem and the names of a number of candidates were mentioned in the media - inclusive of Markram and Bavuma. Markram has been out of cricket with an injury for near to two months - but before that his batting was no better than that of Du Plessis. So would he be selected as a regular player for the Proteas is also in doubt. That doubt apparently caused him not to be appointed, In the case of Bavuma he did quite well in his recent two matches against the English - but his problem relates to the fact that he seems to be injury prone,
That in the end cauised De Kock to be appointed as captain. It caused havoc oin this site and he was attacked as being too stupid to be captain and he is a weakling as demonstrated by his inability to lead the layers. As is evident opinions of memebers are often not based on factual evidence - but rather on personal opinion.
Be it as it may - De Kock is the Protea captain and we have to live with it,
The Protea batting line-up
This is no new problem - it was evident in the WC already that players are not performing. The fact is that replacements became essential - but the organization of SARU was in chaos and they got rid of the temporary coach as well as the CEO and their main sponsor Standard Bank left because of the disgrace of SAC and the bad image it could cast on the Bank.
SA Cricket then had to try and handle the widescale damage they caused themselves- but the process is not completed yet. In the interim the following occurred-
* The CEO was fired and Jacques Faul was appointed as Acting CEO in a desperate effort to mend the fractured relationship with the sponsors.
* Graeme Smith was appointed as Acting Director of Cricket - he had commitments at the IPL and the situation would hopefully be made permanent after that series.
* Mark Boucher was appointed as Head Coach.
However, back to the batting issue, During the past 18 months there was a persistent problem in the team. They relied on De Kock to lay a foundation in the limited over games and to repair the damage in test matches, De Kock rarely failed - but when he did, the rest of the batting line-up crumbled.
It is apparently clear that the situation was chaotic and that the problem was the continued by the Selection Committee. On the other side there was Boucher - who referred to Erasmus as an example that should be followed by SA Cricket. It must be borne in mind that Erasmus in 2019 played a wide range of players in an effort to identify real and potential players to be utilized for the Springboks and in 2018 was severely criticized for doing just that,
Maybe that is the reason why the same was done in the case of cricket. So what was done insofar as batsmen is concerned:-
* Pieter Malan - did not pass the test
* Hamza was around for a while now - but he did no really meet requirements
* Reeza Hendricks - the same as Hamza.
* Van der Dussen - the only player that can be ascribed as a successful selection.
* Smuts was a abject failure.
* Van Biljon really had no real playing time, bit the indications are that he is over the hill.
Further experimenting is likely - this time with the younger and promising players and we can only hope that the path forward is found - especially since players like Du Plessis and Elgar also lost the plot.
Selection of bowlers
I think that the problem is the same with cricket and a string of other bowlers have been used, The key bowlers remain as Rabada and Ngidi. So lets look at the newish bowlers:-
* Nortje - a great selection
* Shamsi - doing better than expected,
* Hendricks - no good
* Patterson - no good
* Sipamla - a good prospect for the future
The situation is slightly better than the case is with the batsmen, but there are some younger bowlers to be considered in future as well.
CONCLUSION
The situation is painful - but we can only hope that the performances of the team will improve in time.