Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Prince has had a good Test career and I think he's been a pretty underappreciated player but in his last 27 innings he averages under 26; which is terrible. A few false dawns in that too with scattered fifties; and he just looks awful at present. He does need to go.
Rudolph's return has been pretty.. odd. At different stages of it he's shown all the various tools he needs to be a success at Test level and I have no doubt that his batsmanship is good enough for the task, but he hasn't been up to put it all together at once and overall his dismissals have been poor despite looking the part in between in various ways. I'd definitely not complain if he was given a little more time but Petersen (although I don't rate him at all) didn't really do much wrong and was dropped harshly so he Rudolph couldn't really afford to do this. Maybe Petersen or Rudolph can slot in at 6.
Boucher's gotta go. Tsolekile or Kuhn are the only real candidates from outside the team that should be considered IMO but with the way Kallis's bowling has gone downhill in the last couple of years I'd be tempted to give de Villiers the gloves and pick a batting allrounder at #7. I know Duminy's not in great form and has his haters but his off spin is vastly under-rated IMO and quite under-used at times; if he batted seven it'd allow all four specialist quicks to play and Kallis to just focus more on his batting. It's a bit of a wild idea that'll never really happen but I'd consider it, personally.
Smith, Kallis and de Villiers have had poor little runs but they're untouchable and so they should be, really.
Rudolph's return has been pretty.. odd. At different stages of it he's shown all the various tools he needs to be a success at Test level and I have no doubt that his batsmanship is good enough for the task, but he hasn't been up to put it all together at once and overall his dismissals have been poor despite looking the part in between in various ways. I'd definitely not complain if he was given a little more time but Petersen (although I don't rate him at all) didn't really do much wrong and was dropped harshly so he Rudolph couldn't really afford to do this. Maybe Petersen or Rudolph can slot in at 6.
Boucher's gotta go. Tsolekile or Kuhn are the only real candidates from outside the team that should be considered IMO but with the way Kallis's bowling has gone downhill in the last couple of years I'd be tempted to give de Villiers the gloves and pick a batting allrounder at #7. I know Duminy's not in great form and has his haters but his off spin is vastly under-rated IMO and quite under-used at times; if he batted seven it'd allow all four specialist quicks to play and Kallis to just focus more on his batting. It's a bit of a wild idea that'll never really happen but I'd consider it, personally.
Smith, Kallis and de Villiers have had poor little runs but they're untouchable and so they should be, really.
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