With Rabada still out it an injury my suggested team would be as follows:--
Aidan Markram
Sarel Erwee
Temba Bavuma
Rassie van der Dussen
Kyle Verreynne
Quinton de Kock
Wiaan Mulder
Denton Stuurman
Keshav Maharaj
Anrich Nortje
Lungi Ngidi - I would rather have Migael Pretorius than ho m in the team,
That’s definitely a ‘suffested’ team .....it’s suffested with a lot of mediocrity.
Cannot be worse than the disasters were in the passed two years, Thanks for correcting my typing error BSter,
Maybe it would help if the Proteas start building a new squad that can repair the damage done by the stagnation of the team by 2019 as confirmed by the 2019 test and shorter version results and the CWC disaster.
But then we have you and the fact that you cannot understand both the games of rugby and cricket and do not realize that players who reached their sell-by dates should be replaced. You also do not realize that it is necessary to build a team up and ensure that it is renewed when players start to fail because of aging.
In any event mediocrity is the norm you encouraged in teams and coaching and is based entirely on reputation without any regard to performances. In any event - you know nothing about the players involved - but that is no surprise at all.
With Elgar and Du Plessis it is indeed a shit side - both are way past their sell-by dates. And Ngidi has gone south in performances in and after the CWC.
Dave
Ngidi was a class act when he hot the scene initially - but he was poor in the CWC in 2019 and extremely poor in the IPL where his franchise used him in only 2 of the 14 matches played and equally so ion the three T20I matches against Enland
Hope he gets over that problem and get his mojo back/
Sipamla was disastrously poor in the one T20I match he played against England and he lost the plot completely in that match. Wonder what happened to that guy Coetzee that was the top bowler in the 2019 under 19 WC where he reached speeds of 152 in bowling when he was only 18 years old? One should rather watch out for him rather than for Sipamla.
Incidentally both Du Plessis and Elgar was below par in the recent provincial games amd players like Erwee and Van der Dussen - although over 30 was much better than the two geriatrics. I one has to believe Du Plessis he was to retire after the T20I RWC in 2020 0 bit the series has due to the Chinese virus was delayed by a year,
Yes they should bring in Hamza, Malan and Van Tonder nd start buildinga proper team for the future,
Dave
Ngidi when he came to the fore as a bowler initially was a class act - but then at the CWC and in subsequent internationals in test and shorter versions of the game his performances has gone south. The IPL was just a further example where the his franchise gave him the Beuren Hendriks treatment - same as another franchise gave the latter, Fact is he was as disastrous in the IPL as Steyn was last year,
I do not say that they must get rid of Ngidi - but there is a definite need for him to up his performances in all versions of the game massively. There c an be no doubt about that at all and maybe it would help if he concentrate on his game and forget about his political shenanigans. The latter may keep him in the team - but will only damage the team further,
Initially M Pretorius and Van Tonder were added to the squad as a bowler and and a badsman, but Pretorius and Sipamla were added yesterday, With the adding of M Pretorius and Van Tonder the squad became too White and that is why I think Sipamla was brought in.
Not sure which squad members will be going home and what the playing team would look like after the latest changes,
Dave
I have a suspicion that Bavuma is one of the positive test cases and will not be participating in the series. I have given a full report om the issue already,
Sipamla was very iffy in local franchise cricket so far this year and very very poor against the English, I wish Rabada was available - Sipamla will never succeed in international cricket,
Elgar at the age of 33 was also iffy on provincial level thus far this year.
I would rather see that the Proteas start getting in new blood and not keep the iffy in the team.
Dave
Sipamla seems to be targeted by all teams - but he is likely to be a quota selection anyway. However, he was called up to the squad a day after Pretorius was called up indicating it was a quota issue and not a merit selection.
As for Elgar - why keep a non-performer in the team.
As to Bavuma - I was checking the squad regularly to see which players actually went into the bio-bubble and in one article the names of Bavuma and Hendriks were missing, An hour later - looking at the same article the two names were back in the list because CSA want the prevent the two absentees being identified,
/
If you think so - you are welcome to believe so, I am not happy about it though..
Dave, realistically your side is closer to the one that will be selected, mine is much the same with one change and one change in the order.
Elgar
Markram
Van Tonder
Bavuma/ Faf if Bavuma is not available
de Kock
Verreynne
Mulder
Maharaj
Nortje
Ngidi
Migael Pretorius
I think that by 2019 the Proteas reached the lowest level in the history since re-admission to professional cricket - same as rugby did under Meyer and Coetzee, but because of different reasons.
In the case of cricket the team selection stagnated with players like Amla, Du Plessis, Philander and Steyn being past their sell-by dates and nothing being done to replace them. When changes were made because of retirements of players the changes were for the worse and near retirement players were brought into the setup.
In 2020 the situation deteriorated even further because of the Chinese virus, After the return of domestic cricket late in 2020 the situation became even worse and more elderly replacements were brought into the Proteas with mediocrity being the norm an players like Alger being iffy at best in domestic cricket,
An essential part of the Springbok rebuilding program was built around the appointment of Erasmus as coach and his player development strategy, One would have hoped that bringing in Smith as Director of Cricket and Boucher as Head Coach would lead to an Erasmus type revolution in cricket development in the Proteas Team - but so far nothing happened and I was hoping for serious team changes to start with - but so far the norm was to change the elderly by the slightly less elderly.
Can one hope for an improvement in approach? One can only hope and that is why I have suggested my above side.
There's nothing wrong with your side it's just that it's too ambitious and falls short of the quota.
Thanks Denny - I appreciate your comments very much, I know that the team I recommended would not be selected - so lets wait and see what happens.