Former Proteas fast bowler, Monde Zondeki, questioned Temba Bavuma’s ability as a T20I player and says that there are “younger guys who can do the job slightly better”, writes Obakeng Meletse.
South Africa and its cricket-loving public got a taste of the return of the international cricket and it took only 5 days for England to clean sweep the Proteas. The three-match series was won 3-0 by England and with that leaving a lot of question marks with the world cup not so far away.
South African coach Mark Boucher had 24 players at his disposal for both the T20I and One-day Internationals that are coming up.
The series started with news that South Africa had a positive Covid-19 case and although they couldn’t confirm at the time, two regulars made a no show in the form of Andile Phehlukwayo and David Miller, how different would the series have turned out had they been available?
The talk about AB de Villiers continues to grow. Just like before he retired, it’s still unclear whether he will return and with only less than a year to go before the World Cup, tough decisions need to be made surrounding the selection of AB.
The series presented Mark Boucher and his technical team more question marks about the overall balance of the team. Between the two sides, England seemed more settled, especially with their batting and have an idea who their best side is and are just fine-tuning a few gaps with their bowling the most concerning.
Former South African fast bowler Monde Zondeki has come out and questioned having Temba Bavuma playing T20i cricket.
“I’ve never really seen Temba as a T20 player, I think we have more explosive younger guys who can come in and do the opening job probably slightly better; because we’ve always looked at him as a sort of Test player who certainly can play in the longer version and the 50-over game”, said Zondeki on the Review Show.
“We still need a quality world-class all-rounder in our team, especially in our one day team. I don’t know what happened to Chris Morris. I think someone like him who’s experienced and can hit a ball a long way was someone we could have used.”
Quinton de Kock also came under heavy scrutiny for his captaincy and how he handled challenging key moments in the games.
“I’ve personally never seen Quinton as a captain, just from knowing his personality. As a player, I can’t doubt his skills but as a captain I’m not quite convinced yet that he’s the right guy going forward, we shall see what they do but I think they are still searching for that one leader.
“Obviously with Faf du Plessis being out of the team, but it does help to have guys that are experienced around.”
De Kock came under the spotlight after it seemed like he was behind the eighth ball, more so when Jos Buttler was tearing Lutho Sipamla apart and captain De Kock was a tad too far away even to offer some advice to the inexperienced bowler.
“I was actually surprised when they picked him as captain but whether to go back to Faf or not, I’m not sure, does he want to do it?
“Is he going to be committed to doing it, the other option is Aiden Markram and I think they gave him the captaincy prematurely but to be honest if it’s about winning the World Cup and doing what’s best for us you might have to go back to Faf for now”, concluded Zondeki.
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