Cape Town - Let me just get this off my chest: It is ridiculous that Ryan Rickelton and Tony de Zorzi are not on tour with the Proteas in Australia at the moment.
Lions left-hander Rickelton was omitted from the trip Down Under due to a lingering ankle problem that he has insisted is under control, but Cricket South Africa did not budge from their selection policy of not picking injured players.
But Rickelton, who was part of the last Test squad, has shown just how ‘injured’ he is with a thrilling run of form in domestic cricket, with scores of 15, 100 not out, 108 not out, 17, 126 and 99 in his last six innings in four-day and one-day cricket.
Hopefully CSA can realise their mistake and get him – and Western Province left-hander De Zorzi, who has also excelled in his last six innings with knocks of 163, 304 not out, 32, 133, 16 and 83 not out – to Australia sooner rather than later.
The batting is the major concern for South Africa ahead of Saturday’s first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane, even though captain Dean Elgar (109), Rassie van der Dussen (95), Theunis de Bruyn (88) and Kyle Verreynne (80) got some runs in a warm-up game that ended on Monday.
Quinton de Kock retired from Test cricket last year already, Aiden Markram has finally been dropped after a long period of poor form and Keegan Petersen is out injured, so that already puts the South Africans on the back foot.
In addition, Temba Bavuma will be squarely in the spotlight once more, following his nightmare T20 World Cup campaign. His elbow problem flared up again and forced him to sit out the first innings of the tour match, but he came out to the middle for the second innings and scored 28 off 92 balls.
Bavuma has been one of the top Proteas batters in Tests over the last two years, with 696 runs in 19 innings – including four not outs – at an average of 46.4, and needs to rekindle that kind of consistency to provide the much-vaunted SA bowling attack the platform to attack Australia’s batting line-up.
The top four of Elgar, Sarel Erwee, Van der Dussen and Bavuma will have to dig deep and see off the first 30 overs at least to give ‘newcomers’ De Bruyn and Khaya Zondo – who scored 18 and 37 in the tour match at the weekend – an opportunity to assess the bowling and gain confidence before they get to the crease.
The right-handed middle-order pair will be under pressure to dish up reasonable scores due to the current imperious form of De Zorzi and Rickelton, and they will have to do it against a serious Australian bowling group.
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Captain Pat Cummins is set to return from injury after missing the West Indies series, and while Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out, seamer Scott Boland has proved to be an able replacement in recent seasons.
Interim coach Malibongwe Maketa will hope to make an impression as well in a bid to secure his job on a permanent basis following the departure of Mark Boucher to the Mumbai Indians, and he will be eager to see the batters knuckle down.
Rickelton, spurred on by Australia omission, to keep making runs for the Lions
“The only way I can affect the game is through preparation,” Maketa said recently.
“Once the game starts, I hand it over, and the biggest thing then is, how do we support the players as a coaching staff? By consistently asking ourselves how we can turn the game around or we can stay ahead in the game, and give that information to the players or Dean and make sure we support them.”
IOL Sport