Proteas coach Rob Walter will name his 15-man squad for next month’s 50-over Cricket World Cup in India on Tuesday.
And he has warned that should any of the country’s name-lekkers miss out, it’s just a sign that their system is healthy.
But Walter knows they aren’t there yet, with youngsters such as Dewald Brevis and Matthew Breetzke failing to take their chances in the recent 3-0 T20I humiliation against Australia.
🇦![CDATA[]]>🇺 AUSTRALIA WIN THE #KFCT20I SERIES
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) September 3, 2023
The visitors seal the series with a 5-wicket victory over the Proteas 🏟 #SAvAus #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/RQKfvT43Ho
South Africa, though, do have an opportunity to rectify the wrongs of the 20-over series in the five-match ODI series which kicks off in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
Key players Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Heinrich Klaasen, Anrich Nortje and David Miller all missed the T20 series and will be back for the ODIs and the World Cup.
Walter says: “We get five guys back that haven’t played - that’s more senior chaps coming back in [for the ODIs].
“It’s great to have their energy and experience back in. It’s the lead-up to a World Cup and there are five big games for us to come together as a group and keep building on our game. I think we’re going to have an awesome series.”
In terms of the World Cup, Walter, who also revealed that Eric Simons would travel with them to the World Cup and also oversee the bowlers in the ODI series, says: “Whenever announcing a squad for a series or a World Cup, tough calls have to be made.
“The better the system is producing, the better the players that will miss out. So if we’ve got good players missing out, it means our system is strong. “We are not there yet as we’ve seen in this [T20I] series. We’ve got work to do as a collective.
“The World Cup announcement is significant...”
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za