South Africa team selection

[StephenZA]

The talk of unleashing the fab 4 is building : https://m.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/proteas-soon-to-unleash-fab-four-quickies-20171207

Would be truly wonderful...

Dean should do it : https://m.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/elgar-has-test-record-in-his-sights-20171207

Hope Elgars gets this... played really well this year and become a stalwart of the SA team. With potential captaincy in his future as well, long may it continue.

 

[SeamUp]

The talk of unleashing the fab 4 is building : https://m.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/proteas-soon-to-unleash-fab-four-quickies-20171207

F**K yes !

Steyn 417 @ 22.30
Morkel 276 @ 28.85
Philander 171 @ 22.45
Rabada 102 @ 22.71

 

[Dendarii]

F**K yes !

Steyn 417 @ 22.30
Morkel 276 @ 28.85
Philander 171 @ 22.45
Rabada 102 @ 22.71

Throw in Maharaj's 51 @ 26.33 and that still makes Morkel the weakest link in the bowling attack - has it ever been possible to say that before?

 

[SeamUp]

Throw in Maharaj's 51 @ 26.33 and that still makes Morkel the weakest link in the bowling attack - has it ever been possible to say that before?

Crazy to think and that is with a 'new' Morkel bowling for wickets himself. So hopefully that average keeps falling.

Then you can add 6 batsmen with a 40+ average : Elgar, Markram (newbie obviously), Hash, AB, Faf, QdK - Not since Biff, Hash, Jakes, Prince, AB, young JP have we had as many. Before that it was Gaz, Hersch, Jakes, Cullinan with 4

 

[Dendarii]

Crazy to think and that is with a 'new' Morkel bowling for wickets himself. So hopefully that average keeps falling.

Then you can add 6 batsmen with a 40+ average : Elgar, Markram (newbie obviously), Hash, AB, Faf, QdK - Not since Biff, Hash, Jakes, Prince, AB, young JP have we had as many. Before that it was Gaz, Hersch, Jakes, Cullinan with 4

Yeah, that does mean that with everyone fully fit we have a seriously good team, and having a top 6 like that means that the slightly risky prospect of playing Philander at 7 to get the four quicks and Maharaj into the team isn't such a risk if that top 6 fires.

 

[SeamUp]

Good to see Morkel is back and got 4 overs under his belt.

 

[Bahseph]

Good to see Morkel is back and got 4 overs under his belt.

Looked sharp as well. Threw in a mandatory no ball so he definitely is back haha

 

[Woodster]

That does look a very strong side, the one position for me that I would question is Philander batting as high as seven against the very best sides (although they are in fairly short supply at the moment), but as Dendarii suggested, that does become less of a concern if you can put that top six out. It's not just the XI, the depth in the squad should also be decent if you consider the likes of Bavuma, Parnell, Morris, Olivier, Phehlukwayo, Kuhn, etc, pushing for spots.

As good as it gets in international cricket at the moment, just hope they all get fit.

 

[StephenZA]

Suppose this XI could carry on for more than 3 years. I went for Hendricks because I think it may be unfair on van Zyl & he may not take the opportunity. Returns right-hand & left-hand opening partnership from Knights days.

Elgar
Hendricks
Faf
Amla
AB
JP
de Kock
Philander
Harmer
Steyn
Morkel

I then went for who could come in if the above do falter.

OPENERS

Markram
Rickelton

I could easily have gone for Cloete & White who seem to be there and there abouts making recent 'A' squads but even if they are openers in SA, I'm not sure early 30's averages at 23 is going to cut it. Also I like the majority of my players to be fairly all-round and they don't play limited overs cricket at franchise level.

MIDDLE ORDER

van Zyl
Rossouw
Bavuma
de Bruyn

Two lefties and two righties split for top-to-middle order. Rossouw & de Bruyn naturally quick scoring while the others or more patient.

KEEPERS

Second
Fortuin

Not sure keepers will be required too much with de Kock around.

ALL-ROUNDERS

Savage
Phehlukwayo
Galiem

Don't think I will be considering Albie, McLaren, Wiese and Morris for the long term. Putting my hopes in these 3 youngsters to carry on the all-round tradition. The aim would be for them to be number 7 after de Kock and be first change bowlers.

SPINNERS

Piedt
Shamsi
Linde

Tahir will probably travel with Harmer in the immediate future. Gone with a left-arm spinner, right-arm off-spinner and chinaman wrist-spinner for variation.

SEAMERS

Abbott
Parnell
Rabada
Dupavillon

Abbott and Parnell are mid 20's & opportunities will be around for the next 3 years with injuries. Whether they can knock out the current 3 is a big question mark. Decided to leave de Lange out as his injuries will continue to haunt him. So went with the 2 youngsters who are good athletes and always at you and can bowl the same pace in their last spell as to their first.

This is a post SeamUp posted in the future 2018 test thread (not trying to put him on the spot!) back in 2015. Got things pretty right there. Harmer, Abbott and Russouw went kolpak.

So I'm just trying to think where we will be after the WC, considering the number of retirements.

Looking at current team,
Elgar
Markram
Amla
AB
Faf
de Kock
Bavuma/Morris (or Philander with Morkel in team)
Philander
Maharaj
Rabada
Steyn/Morkel

Some of those youngsters have moved up and looking good, but we are going to lose (worst case scenario) Steyn, Morkel, Philander, Faf. Amla!,ABdV!! (5/6 of the 11!)

So what do we think the team will look like say end 2019, if those retire.

Breetze
Markram
Hamza
Elgar * (dropping down order as cpt)
QDK
Bavuma/De Bruyn
Mulder/Morris
Maharaj
Rabada
DuPavilion
Ngidi

Extra possibilities:
Second, Ackermann, Savage, Phehlukwayo, Ntini, Cohen, Klaasens, Verreyenne, Smith, Olivier

Would that be a good guess? Is there any potential I'm missing. Does that look a competitive team?

 

[SeamUp]

Ha ! Can't even remember doing that.

I was hoping for this season to give more answers for the next batch but not sure that start to the Sunfoil Series was normal with all those runs. So hoping to see a bit in the 50-over comp starting in just over a week.

Right now I'm watching Breetzke, Rickelton, Hamza, Mulder, Ngidi and Dupavillon closely in particular. And of course Dupavillon has missed so much cricket so it is difficult to know what sort of level he is going to come back. Praying he comes back to the same levels as he will bring good variety (skiddy type) to Rabada and Ngidi. Also it would be nice to find some left-arm quicks and Cohen/Trumpelmann are one's to watch there.

It is also interesting to see who are the young players above SA u19 in each franchise at the moment who are 23/24 & under and are making names for themselves either at franchise level or pushing to get recognition there.

Cobras :
Vasconcelos, Verreynne, Hamza, J.Smith, Galiem, Simmonds, Williams, Cohen

Warriors :
Moore, Fortuin, Nortje

Dolphins :
Muthusamy, Makhanya, Phehlukwayo, Savage, E.Bosch, Subrayen, Dupavillon, Zuma, Cele

Knights :
Petersen, du Plooy , Dry

Lions :
Rickelton, J.Malan, Ackerman, Mulder, Fortuin

Titans :
Hermann, de Zorzi, Moonsamy, Ngidi, Pretorius, C.Bosch, Trumpelmann

 

[StephenZA]

I was hoping for this season to give more answers for the next batch but not sure that start to the Sunfoil Series was normal with all those runs. So hoping to see a bit in the 50-over comp starting in just over a week.

Thats one of the things I noticed, the younger guys just do not seem to get enough game time (not just the white players). I mean if in 2 seasons time we need to have picked 5 more guys and they've only played 20 FC matches; somethings wrong.

I`m going to keep your list of guys to keep and eye on....

 

[Rasimione]

This is a post SeamUp posted in the future 2018 test thread (not trying to put him on the spot!) back in 2015. Got things pretty right there. Harmer, Abbott and Russouw went kolpak.

So I'm just trying to think where we will be after the WC, considering the number of retirements.

Looking at current team,
Elgar
Markram
Amla
AB
Faf
de Kock
Bavuma/Morris (or Philander with Morkel in team)
Philander
Maharaj
Rabada
Steyn/Morkel

Some of those youngsters have moved up and looking good, but we are going to lose (worst case scenario) Steyn, Morkel, Philander, Faf. Amla!,ABdV!! (5/6 of the 11!)

So what do we think the team will look like say end 2019, if those retire.

Breetze
Markram
Hamza
Elgar * (dropping down order as cpt)
QDK
Bavuma/De Bruyn
Mulder/Morris
Maharaj
Rabada
DuPavilion
Ngidi

Extra possibilities:
Second, Ackermann, Savage, Phehlukwayo, Ntini, Cohen, Klaasens, Verreyenne, Smith, Olivier

Would that be a good guess? Is there any potential I'm missing. Does that look a competitive team?

Gerald Coetzee not getting a shout?

 

[SeamUp]

FTP only has us playing 32 tests in the FTP cycle of 2019-2023. England 46 , Australia 40, India 37, Bangladesh 35 all more than us.

2019-20
Home : England, Sri Lanka
Away : Pakistan

2020-21
Home : Australia
Away : India , West Indies

2021-22
Home : India
Away : New Zealand

2022-23
Home : West Indies , Bangladesh
Away : Australia, England


Looks like Windies away is the new Sri Lanka away. Think if this follows through we wouldn't have played tests in the West Indies for at least 8 years.

 

[Prince EWS]

That does look a very strong side, the one position for me that I would question is Philander batting as high as seven against the very best sides (although they are in fairly short supply at the moment)

I think a 7/8 of Philander/Maharaj is fine. It's not a strength in the way it'd be if they were at 8 and 9 instead, but I think it's fine. Both of them have improved their batting a lot over the last two or three seasons.

I think other teams would struggle to bat Philander as high as seven because it'd also mean having to bat their keeper at six, but when your keeper could make the side on batting alone anyway this isn't really an issue. If you compare Philander to the other #7s, only Bairstow and Sarfraz seem completely out his league, even if most of them are probably slightly better than him.

 

[Rasimione]

I think a 7/8 of Philander/Maharaj is fine. It's not a strength in the way it'd be if they were at 8 and 9 instead, but I think it's fine. Both of them have improved their batting a lot over the last two or three seasons.

I think other teams would struggle to bat Philander as high as seven because it'd also mean having to bat their keeper at six, but when your keeper could make the side on batting alone anyway this isn't really an issue. If you compare Philander to the other #7s, only Bairstow and Sarfraz seem completely out his league, even if most of them are probably slightly better than him.

Philander has pretty solid technique for someone expected to bat at 7.

 

[StephenZA]

Gerald Coetzee not getting a shout?

Still quite young.... would be very happy for him to turn into another Rabada.

 

[SeamUp]

Morkel with 5-20 for Easterns. Building up nicely.

 

[SeamUp]

Steyn has now been omitted from both the semis and finals of the ramslam...this looks injury related.

Boucher said Steyn bowling 4-over spells won't get him ready for boxing day. So they keeping him for Zim warm-up game supposedly under lights in Paarl.

 

[StephenZA]

Boucher said Steyn bowling 4-over spells won't get him ready for boxing day. So they keeping him for Zim warm-up game supposedly under lights in Paarl.

Is the warm-up being televised? I hope so its not like there is much else going on...

 

[SeamUp]

Is the warm-up being televised? I hope so its not like there is much else going on...

Doubt it. SuperSport definitely brought in the cuts.

They always used to show tour games but that stopped years ago.