Ken Borland

You can’t buy experience, so the saying goes, and the sort of talent and skill Rilee Rossouw can bring to the Proteas team is also not available in the shops and South Africa captain David Miller said he is delighted to have the left-handed powerhouse back in the squad for the first T20 against England in Bristol on Wednesday night.

The 32-year-old Rossouw is poised to play for the Proteas for the first time since October 2016. The Grey College product, swift of foot and hand, then signed a Kolpak contract with Hampshire and has made his dashing mark in T20 tournaments around the world. He has been especially successful since joining Somerset for this year’s T20 Blast, lashing 623 runs at an average of 47 and a strike-rate of 192.

“It’s great to have Rilee back, we began our professional careers around the same time back in the day,” Miller said on Tuesday. “The team is right behind him, he has immense experience from playing in leagues around the world.

“He’s also spent a few years in England and it’s great to have that local knowledge for this series. He has a good head on his shoulders and he’s a matchwinner.

“He’s a lot stronger since I last played with him. He’s a seriously good player. A very relaxed guy who takes everything in his stride, but really competitive and fiery on the field. I’m really looking forward to playing alongside him again,” Miller said.

With Temba Bavuma unable to take the reins due to his elbow injury, Miller will captain South Africa for the second series, having led for two matches against Pakistan in 2019. The Proteas won that home rubber 2-1, with Miller commanding a largely second-string squad. Only Hendricks, Van der Dussen, Klaasen, Phehlukwayo and Shamsi are still in the picture.

In those games Miller learnt the importance of staying in contact with his bowlers when T20 inevitably gets hectic.

“It can get a little crazy,” Miller admitted. “It’s about having clear plans. You have to learn pretty quickly our there, it’s about knowing what my bowlers are like, what I want and what they want to do.

“It’s about being well-prepared and you have to trust the bowlers to execute their skills, you can’t control everything as a captain. I do have that trust, so it’s just about executing at the right time.

“In the last year-and-a-half, we’ve got our squad together and we’re pretty comfortable. England have a serious team, but us too. It’s about who does the right things at the right time.

“We’ve played some really good cricket lately and we feel confident. We’re definitely taking this series very seriously so we can continue our momentum heading for the World Cup,” Miller said.

The match starts at 7.30pm SA time.

One of the triumphs of this current Proteas team has been the way they have been able to bounce back from disastrous performances relatively quickly and they will need to do that again on Sunday as they play the English side that tore their batting apart to level the series in Manchester, in the decisive third ODI at Headingley.

South Africa, having impressed with the ball to bowl England out for 201 inside their 29 overs at Old Trafford, were bundled out for just 83 in reply. Having made their highest ever score [333/5] in England in the first ODI, the Proteas then slumped to their joint-worst total against the hosts. Their 83 all out in Nottingham in 2008 and Manchester on Friday night are their second-lowest totals in all ODIs, behind their 69 against Australia in Sydney in 1993.

But South Africa’s two highest run-scorers, Heinrich Klaasen (33) and Dwaine Pretorius (17), were both exuding positive vibes after wasting a good chance to win the series.

“We don’t need to change anything, our blueprints are good and we bowled extremely well. With the bat, if our risks come off on Sunday then it will be a different ball-game,” Klaasen said.

“We are playing good cricket, they just bowled extremely well up front, put us on the back foot and we never recovered. We still believe in our plan.”

Pretorius, who led an outstanding bowling display with career-best figures of four for 36, echoed Klaasen’s view.

“All our options to take a risk with the bat just did not come off, but I’m sure we’ll bounce back. It was our first innings here under lights and that definitely had an impact.

“The next game is a day game and it will be interesting to see if that swing England found is still there. The batting unit has really been on fire and it was just one of those days.

“They mustn’t let it go to their heads, they must stay confident. England put the performance in in this match, and we did in the previous game. So it’s going to be a great game on Sunday.

“What happened is not a massive issue, teams are allowed to play well against you and England did, they outskilled us. But the rub of the green did not go our way and cricket does not always work out perfectly,” Pretorius said.

Alarmingly, both Pretorius and Klaasen said the Proteas had practised hard at the swinging ball, which was their undoing as they crashed to 6 for four, their worst ever start in an ODI, in terms of their total when the fourth wicket fell.

“We have been preparing exactly for that swing, we’ve done a lot of work against the swinging ball,” Pretorius said.

“We trained hard for the left-armers and the ball coming in,” Klaasen assured. “But credit to them, they bowled extremely well, kept their lengths and swung the ball nicely.”

The third ODI starts at 12pm SA time.

Anrich Nortje and an in-form Heinrich Klaasen are back in the ODI fold and Keshav Maharaj has been handed the captaincy in the absence of Temba Bavuma, but what will the Proteas want to get out of their three-match ODI series against world champions England that starts at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday afternoon?

The series does not form part of the Super League, so there are no crucial World Cup qualifying points at stake.

A settled batting line-up in both personnel and strategy

The injury to Temba Bavuma has created the opportunity for someone else to show what they can do in the top-order. Janneman Malan will want to continue his phenomenal ODI form (averaging 59 with a strike-rate of 87) as Quinton de Kock’s opening partner, while showing the ability to match his approach to the game situation.

Aiden Markram could shift into the No.3 position and have yet another chance to establish himself in the ODI team, while Reeza Hendricks and Khaya Zondo are also options. Zondo is more of a middle-order batsman for KZN, however, and so is probably competing with Rassie van der Dussen (average 71, strike-rate 88) or the in-form finishing duo of David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen for a place.

In what is perhaps a backhanded compliment, England have recalled leg-spinner Adil Rashid to their squad, and the left-handed Miller and Klaasen, arguably South Africa’s best player of spin, will be crucial in countering him.

ODI cricket is a new game these days and the Proteas batsmen have to show they are keeping up with the new strategic demands.

Fast bowlers who can make batsmen squirm

England’s batting line-up have been at the forefront of the bold new approach in ODIs. But India’s superb attack showed in their series win against them in the last week that high-quality pace bowling can defuse the threat.

The resting Kagiso Rabada will be missed, but fast bowler Nortje is back to provide the hard lengths and fiery pace that is difficult to hit, while Lungi Ngidi has been in fine form with the white ball in recent times and Marco Jansen brings left-arm heat which can be awkward.

Maharaj to avail himself of intel

Given England’s recent battering of the two teams who contested last year’s World Test Championship final – New Zealand and India – and the Proteas currently being No.1 in those standings, the Test series against England is probably the priority, especially with no Super League World Cup qualifying points at stake.

Keshav Maharaj, besides having another opportunity to showcase his captaincy skills, is probably delighted to be able to avail himself of the opportunity to get used to the English pitches. The left-arm spinner is an excellent ODI bowler, and the two wickets he took in the first over of the last warm-up against the England Lions showed what a factor he could be in the series.

De Kock the man to lead the batting

Now that he no longer has the burden of captaincy, Quinton de Kock will want to show he is the leader of the Proteas batting line-up. While his T20 form of late has been frustrating (last 6 innings, HS = 34, average 17.50, SR 110.53), he has been consistently superb in ODIs with 751 runs in his 14 innings since 2020, at an average of 53.64 and strike-rate of 101.34. The 29-year-old will want to show that he is still a man to be feared by bowlers.

The International Cricket Council are in charge of the sport globally and they should take the blame for South Africa feeling forced to make their Proteas head back from Australia without playing their ODI series next January, the players’ association said on Wednesday.

Cricket South Africa announced on Wednesday that they have forfeited their three-match ODI series – and therefore potentially crucial World Cup qualifying points – that was scheduled to be played in Australia between January 12-17. The reason for this is that they are launching their new franchise T20 league then and they want all their Proteas to be available.

South African Cricketers’ Association CEO Andrew Breetzke told The Citizen that while the players are “disappointed and upset” both at missing out on the ODIs in Australia and the prospect of not automatically qualifying for the World Cup, the blame should be laid at the ICC’s door.

The Proteas are currently 11^th in the Super League, with the top eight qualifying directly for the World Cup and the rest going into a qualifying tournament. With zero points now from their matches against Australia, South Africa have eight ODIs left to qualify – three against England in South Africa early next year, three in India and the rescheduled two matches against the Netherlands.

“CSA have engaged with us and the players are obviously disappointed and upset,” Breetzke said. “It’s not an ideal situation but it was inevitable due to the ICC’s failure to show leadership around bilateral series.

“For South Africa cricket to be sustainable, bilateral series don’t do it. Every country [outside the Big Three] is feeling the same pain and T20 leagues is how they survive. CSA’s decision is no surprise, it’s about sustaining the game.

“Fica [the international players’ associations body] have been saying for the last five years that the ICC need to ensure a happy mix between bilateral cricket and T20 leagues, but nothing has been done.

“We are quite angry to be honest. This decision is the canary in the gold mine, but don’t blame CSA, blame the ICC. They should be creating windows but they’ve done nothing and international cricket is in a bad space,” Breetzke fumed.

As it is, the Proteas are in for an extremely busy summer.

Their tour of England only ends on September 12, and their three ODIs, as well as T20s, in India are believed to be in October, before they head to Australia for the T20 World Cup from October 16 to November 13.

Their Test tour of Australia then starts with the first match from December 17 in Brisbane. That series ends on January 8, but they won’t then be resting because CSA is pegging the success of their new T20 league in January on their participation.

The three ODIs against England are also scheduled for January. It now looks more and more possible that South Africa will also have to play in the World Cup qualifying tournament in June/July.