South Africa team selection

[91Jmay]

Yeah Peterson and Hendricks are out of it.

But right now, Zonda could probably take Peterson`s place and Hendricks would be good to open with Bavuma. Mosehle could replace Tahir and keep. Can replace Ontong with (Jason) Smith. Still leaves a good 4 man attack with a a few allrounders. Best thing is I still did not have to put Ramela in the team.

Hendricks
Bavuma
Amla
Duminy
Zonda
Jason Smith
Mosehle+
Philander
Maharaj
Rabada
Ngidi

Phehlukwayo and Shamsi on the bench.


Taking out Rillee and Abbott as unavailable.... replace with Olivier and de Bruyn. I would not play Pretorius, and Markram could make the team, Elgar at 3.

Cook
Markram
Elgar
Faf
AB
de Bruyn
QDK
Harmer
Steyn
Olivier
Morkel

Mulder and Pretorius on the bench.

2 pretty good teams.

Pretty close. White team possibly edges it but not much in it.

 

[Tom Flint]

I included banned and kolpak players as it was a hypothetical question and cant actually see it happening any time soon. I just think the qouta team is too inferior with the bat especially with the attack of a fit steyn morkel and abbott

 

[Dendarii]

Taking out Rillee and Abbott as unavailable.... replace with Olivier and de Bruyn. I would not play Pretorius, and Markram could make the team, Elgar at 3.

Cook
Markram
Elgar
Faf
AB
de Bruyn
QDK
Harmer
Steyn
Olivier
Morkel

Mulder and Pretorius on the bench.

Hasn't Harmer also gone Kolpak? So who would be the spin option if you exclude him as well? Von Berg?

 

[SeamUp]

Good news.

Dale Steyn brought seven-week-old Chobe, a Border Collie puppy, and nine-year-old Sadie, a golden retriever, to Newlands on Monday. Morne Morkel was there too, and had his 17-month old son Arias in tow. But this was not a play date for the two pacemen. They are both on the mend as they work towards comebacks and the progress reports from both are pleasing.

Morkel has been battling a back injury that he sustained last July. Since then, he has played one first-class match for his franchise, in October, and was taken on South Africa's tour of Australia where he played in three warm-up matches but not in the Tests.

He was due to be considered for a List A game for Northerns on January 22 - the same match in which AB de Villiers made his return from elbow surgery - with a view to playing the third T20 against Sri Lanka but suffered a recurrence of symptoms and was unavailable for any game time. Morkel has been bowling in the nets and is hopeful of playing some List A matches for Titans in the one-day cup which starts next Friday, in an attempt to declare himself fully fit for the three-Test series in New Zealand in March.

Morkel will not make himself available for the IPL in a bid to be as strong and fresh as possible for South Africa's tour to England this winter. The three-month long visit starts with ODIs in May, the Champions Trophy in June, three T20s, and four Tests over July and August.

Steyn is also targeting the England tour, although only the Test component of it. He has been out of action since breaking a bone in his shoulder during the Perth Test in November and was set to be sidelined for six months. Steyn started running and doing gym work in January and has now begun to swim, well ahead of schedule. He was initially due to hit the pool from the end of February but has been able to swim already, a sign that the shoulder is healing.

Vernon Philander, who had neither a pet nor a child with him, was also at Newlands. Philander has not been playing for the Cobras in the first-class competition. He had a minor impingement of his ankle from the Test series against Sri Lanka and has been advised rest in the lead-up to the New Zealand series. Philander tore ankle ligaments in warm-ups in Bangalore in November 2015 and was out for the rest of the 2015-16 summer but has since been successful for South Africa in Tests in Australia and at home against Sri Lanka.

 

[Julian87]

Abbott: I nearly left after 2015 World Cup | Sport24
Interesting... very diplomatic regarding the quotas.

There's an excellent, yet brief, article on that selection in the semi final here.

The strangest selection | The Cricket Monthly | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[StephenZA]

So our batting seems pretty locked. With Cook, Elgar, Amla, Duminy, Faf, Bavuma, QDK. Philander and Rabada easy first bowling choices, (assuming no Morkel/Steyn). No 3 seamer is a little bit of a worry. Outside chance of picking Morris? But probably Parnell/Olivier gets the nod, Parnell still worries me. Maharaj unless injured, is the spinner with Shamsi/Piedt as backup. Really interested who is picked as reserve batsmen, assume it is de Bruyn (hopefully); but they have to be considering Zonda with Bavuma out of sorts! Is Morkel possibly going to be back in time, would go straight back into SA team? Still a month until first test.

 

[StephenZA]

Just to keep LO stuff separate (basically ignoring the T20); The game yesterday had me considered regarding low down strikers of the ball. Without Miller you can see a real issue. Faf did well yesterday, but without Miller`s batting seems under powered low own the order, nobody easily clears the fence. I do like the spud (Behardien)... he is fast so is always picking up 1`s and 2`s and he tends to score at very good S/R when coming in later in the innings or just gets out, hardly ever wastes balls. Duminy seems to have gotten into the habit of wasting time and I dont think he fits at 5/6 anymore, unless SA are willing to start swapping the batting order around more, which they seem reluctant to do. I do think that Morris is going to be much preferable to Pretorius right now, which is unfortunate for the man. I want to see Phehlukwayo get a batter chance with the bat, we know he can clear the boundary but he is not really getting a chance. And I do think Morkel needs to be in the team, we lacked an extra strike bowler yesterday.

 

[Marius]

There's an excellent, yet brief, article on that selection in the semi final here.

The strangest selection | The Cricket Monthly | ESPN Cricinfo

I thought the bit on Abbott was awful - it was so out of sync with the other contributions. Vice could have written a really interesting article - who remembers Friedel de Wet being picked, or Dewald Pretorius, or Rudi Syetn, or John Commins? Those could have nbeen really interesting, but instead Vice used the platform to flog a dead horse and have a go at CSA again.

Vice also pushes transformation (which is fair enough and which I broadly support), but if we have quotas (whether explicit or implicit) we are going to have incidents like the Abbott SF one. The cognitive dissonance that Vice has around this issue astounds me.

 

[Marius]

So our batting seems pretty locked. With Cook, Elgar, Amla, Duminy, Faf, Bavuma, QDK. Philander and Rabada easy first bowling choices, (assuming no Morkel/Steyn). No 3 seamer is a little bit of a worry. Outside chance of picking Morris? But probably Parnell/Olivier gets the nod, Parnell still worries me. Maharaj unless injured, is the spinner with Shamsi/Piedt as backup. Really interested who is picked as reserve batsmen, assume it is de Bruyn (hopefully); but they have to be considering Zonda with Bavuma out of sorts! Is Morkel possibly going to be back in time, would go straight back into SA team? Still a month until first test.

It's got to be De Bruyn as the 1st reserve, with Zondo next I think.

In terms of seamers I reckon the top four are obviously KG, Vern, Parnell, and Olivier, with Morris the first reserve there. Still not sold on his bowling in the Test format though, and the batting isn't really an issue, especially if we have Vern, Parnell, and Maharaj in a side. Even KG is decent with the willow.

 

[Marius]

Just to keep LO stuff separate (basically ignoring the T20); The game yesterday had me considered regarding low down strikers of the ball. Without Miller you can see a real issue. Faf did well yesterday, but without Miller`s batting seems under powered low own the order, nobody easily clears the fence. I do like the spud (Behardien)... he is fast so is always picking up 1`s and 2`s and he tends to score at very good S/R when coming in later in the innings or just gets out, hardly ever wastes balls. Duminy seems to have gotten into the habit of wasting time and I dont think he fits at 5/6 anymore, unless SA are willing to start swapping the batting order around more, which they seem reluctant to do. I do think that Morris is going to be much preferable to Pretorius right now, which is unfortunate for the man. I want to see Phehlukwayo get a batter chance with the bat, we know he can clear the boundary but he is not really getting a chance. And I do think Morkel needs to be in the team, we lacked an extra strike bowler yesterday.

Yeah, Morris is probably ahead of Pretorius. But Pretorius will get his change and he's solid. He could easily be a Test no 6 one day.

 

[SeamUp]

It's got to be De Bruyn as the 1st reserve, with Zondo next I think.

In terms of seamers I reckon the top four are obviously KG, Vern, Parnell, and Olivier, with Morris the first reserve there. Still not sold on his bowling in the Test format though, and the batting isn't really an issue, especially if we have Vern, Parnell, and Maharaj in a side. Even KG is decent with the willow.

I've always felt that Chris Morris is probably more suited to the longer format and his history domestically probably shows that. Always feel when he gets a bit of swing he is a handful.

 

[StephenZA]

@SeamUp - Is Morkel likely to be fit and if so do you think he will get picked for the NZ series?

 

[SeamUp]

@SeamUp - Is Morkel likely to be fit and if so do you think he will get picked for the NZ series?

In the Press release above it indicates that he will be available for selection for the NZL test series if he proves himself fit during the 50-over domestic comp. All the noises so far seems like patience and taking it game by game when he gets back so probably have to see how he comes back for the Titans. Domingo clearly still has him in his plans with him, Steyn and Philander joining in with training at Newlands.

 

[SeamUp]

Philander supposedly back into to consideration as a new ball partner for KG for Champions Trophy for a quick fix after Abbo leaving on short notice.

 

[StephenZA]

South Africa, England players likely to leave IPL early | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
Unusual for CSA to do this, hopefully it does happen. England tour and Champions trophy much more important.

Did not realize that Ngidi entered into the IPL auction.... I wonder of anyone will pick him up, still very young?

 

[SeamUp]

South Africa, England players likely to leave IPL early | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
Unusual for CSA to do this, hopefully it does happen. England tour and Champions trophy much more important.

Did not realize that Ngidi entered into the IPL auction.... I wonder of anyone will pick him up, still very young?

Like this. This was the area Domingo felt we went wrong when had a couple of bad series. He wanted to make sure the Protea was number one and that meant planning/training as well as playing was ahead of these tournaments.

SA players in IPL Auction

Kyle Abbott (150)
Kagiso Rabada (100)
Andile Phehlukwayo (50)
Imran Tahir (50)
Wayne Parnell (50)
Farhaan Behardien (30)
David Wiese (30)
Theunis de Bruyn (30)
Lungi Ngidi (30)
Dwaine Pretorius (30)
Robbie Frylinck (30)
Rassie vd Dussen (10)
Christiaan Jonker (10)

Retained List

Pune : Faf du Plessis
Gujarat :
Punjab : David Miller, Hashim Amla
Kolkata :
Mumbai :
Delhi : Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Chris Morris
Bangalore : AB de Villiers, Tabraiz Shamsi
Hyderabad :

 

[SeamUp]

Heard that his back was quite serious and it has just come out :

'Was told I would never be able to play again' - Morne Morkel | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Morne Morkel, who is attempting to make a comeback from a back injury, has revealed he was told he would never be able to play cricket again.

"No one was 100% sure of what was going on with my back and to be honest there was a time when I was in doubt about my future‚" Morkel told Times Live while training with his franchise Titans ahead of their Momentum One-Day Cup match against Dolphins on Friday.

"I was told that I would never be able to play cricket again and it was a mental thing to go to the gym. One doctor actually told me that my days as a player were numbered which was not a nice thing to hear."

Having ignored that prognosis and sought other doctors' advice, Morkel has now recovered fully and hopes to rule himself fit for the Test-match leg of South Africa's tour of New Zealand. Having last played international cricket in June 2016 and any cricket since a tour game in Melbourne November, he will begin his comeback with the Momentum One-Day Cup.

In addition, Morkel is not making himself available for the IPL, in a bid to be at full fitness for South Africa's tour of England later this year.

Meanwhile, Vernon Philander, who has been battling a minor ankle impingement, is also going to be in action during the one-day cup. Philander is available for Cobras and will be closely watched by the national selectors after bowling coach Charl Langeveldt suggested he could be the new-ball bowler South Africa's one-day outfit is looking for.

 

[SeamUp]

Phangiso is peeved off for not making ODI squads : http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sport/2017/02/16/phangiso-bewildered-by-continued-sa-odi-snub

 

[fishyguy]

it seems to me despite the quote system the exodus of their top players SA is still managing to be a very decent side for now. I mean with all the selection problems youre still # 1 ODI team. Maybe the quota system is not ideal but despite the negatives there seems to be enough talent to still make SA a very competitive side. And on the bright side if the quota system works and SA are able to unearth a whole new talent segment of the black population in the long run they may end up getting a larger talent pool be competitive long term

 

[Dendarii]

it seems to me despite the quote system the exodus of their top players SA is still managing to be a very decent side for now. I mean with all the selection problems youre still # 1 ODI team. Maybe the quota system is not ideal but despite the negatives there seems to be enough talent to still make SA a very competitive side. And on the bright side if the quota system works and SA are able to unearth a whole new talent segment of the black population in the long run they may end up getting a larger talent pool be competitive long term

I do wonder whether any negative effect that the quota system will have on South African cricket at an international level has being overstated. It clearly hasn't had that negative impact yet, although admittedly it has only been in place for the 2016/17 season and hasn't really been tested. Were Rabada to get injured or Bavuma not regain form then there could be some tricky decisions which have to be made, but so far the quota has been met without any outlandish selections having taken place.

However, it's definitely not working quite so well at franchise level, where it's a hard quota with more black players required than for the national team. This has resulted in players being picked who probably shouldn't have been, with other players being left out to accommodate them. And so far, it hasn't unearthed too many who are good enough for higher honours, so probably can't be viewed as all that successful just yet.