A ramble about the SA team at the moment...
Considering how well SA have done in Aus I was thinking that SA have been hugely underestimated, I had uncertainty about my teams batting but overall I thought it was a better team than many thought. However poor the Aus team is now, its never easy to go to Australia and win a test series, never mind so comprehensively. I was trying to figure out why SA were underestimated, imo.
SA must have the best pace bowling attack in the world at the moment, argument could be made for England but think that SA 3rd seamer is stronger than Englands who have the advantage of Stokes. But the backup for SA is unbelievable, with Morkel and Abbott on the sidelines (assuming Steyn comes back). Duane Olivier I think will step up as well if needed. Our spin bowlers stocks are really good (sad to say that only after the Indian tour!) Maharaj has been brilliant in his role as a holding spinner. Shamsi will be a great option as an attacking spinner if and when needed. And we have a few options still sitting in SA. So overall SA bowling is exceptionally strong right now and for the foreseeable future.
Our batting is still our greatest uncertainty, QDK at 7 has truly strengthened our batting, with Philander at 8 it means we no longer have a stupidly long tail. Bavuma has been a revelation and while not the most exciting of player has been pretty good, his temperament is the thing I like the most. I just hopes he starts converting 50`s into 100`s. Duminy and Faf are still, for me, our biggest uncertainties, both at times have shown brilliance and both have gone through very dry spells. Faf`s captaincy has been great, but he needs to score more runs to be ensured a place in the team. Duminy brings extra bowling option, but his batting has been so inconsistent. Amla is Amla... he gets to stay as long as he wants. Then we have Elgar and Cook. Elgar will stay, because of temperament again.. he scores ugly runs but importantly he wears down the new ball more often than not. Cook I can`t see him being a long term solution to our opening problems, even though he probably deserves a better chance. Ruthlessly we have better batsmen sitting on the side lines right now. With deVillers still coming into the team and Rillee; de Bruyn has not even gotten a call up yet considering how well he has done for 3 seasons now. We still have 2 x SA atg`s in Amla and deVillers, and QDK showing some real potential as an atg. With some solid batting in and around these players SA has a no better or worse batting line-up than any other team in the world at the moment, not comparable to the atg great teams or having Smith/Kallis but not a terrible batting line-up either. The biggest concern is we don`t know who our best top 6 really are? Should Duminy/Faf be playing? before Rillee or even de Bruyn? Experience counts but that does not make them your best players.
SA also have no genuine test allrounders right now, but with QDK at 7 I`m less concerned with that, and some seriously talented young allrounders coming up that should help.
So now I go back to my original question, why were so many (including SA commentators/public) so negative about our test team, firstly I realized that because SA had lost Smith and Kallis (2x SA atg`s) the immediate assumption was we would be poor. Initially we were alright, but the Indian tour really hammered us (not unsurprisingly), with Amla in shocking form, and we brought in a low confidence team against England with some poor selections and were beaten. Which was a big disappointment. Secondly, I think that people didn`t really realize how good some of our young players actually are, QDK and Rabada are probably the 2 most talented youngsters that have made an appearance in international cricket in the last 2 years. Third and importantly, people keep hearing about the quota system and assume we are picking poor players. Maharaj was a perfect example, nobody knew him, he bowled 3 overs, and was immediately assumed to be a quota player. The fact he was probably the best domestic spinner last year became irrelevant. Bavuma`s original selection had a similar reaction. Philander is stupidly underestimated, quota is often mentioned and the incorrect assumption he always gets injured on flat tracks. He is a tubby irritating ****... but a really good tubby irritating ****. None of the players we have picked for SA, so far, have not deserved to be in the squad. We do not have a problem with players of 'colour' we do have a problem with 'black' players if Rabada or Bavuma get injured. But even when Steyn went home the selectors did not call up Andile or another player of colour they called up Pretorious, a bit of a surprise, but a white player. So people need to realize that at this stage because a player of 'colour' is in the team does not mean he does not deserve to be there.
So what would I like to see from the SA team in the future. Firstly, I would like us to start winning home series; we have a pretty poor track record of this. We have done well overseas but have now lost to Aus and England at home and drew a series against India when we should have expected to win. I would also like us to decide what our middle order should be and stick with it for awhile. I think that Cook should be dropped for deVillers, not to sure who should open then. I like Bavuma at 6 even if he could open, pushing Amla up seems wrong and I`m not sure if Faf could open in tests? If Faf/Duminy does not make consistent runs by end of Sri Lanka tour, Rillee deserves a spot. I hope we do not try find a 5 man attack and bring in an allrounder that is not ready.
Mentally we were shot after that and then we dealt with injury blows and England hit us hard and got their most deserved victory against us since re-admission.
