Ken Borland

Tristan Stubbs, the sensational young Warriors batting talent, will have his first taste of international action when he tours India with the Proteas T20 squad next month and his Eastern Province coach, Robin Peterson, believes the 21-year-old will only get better as he gains more experience in the shortest format.

Stubbs’s maiden Proteas call-up came on Tuesday following two outstanding T20 campaigns for the Warriors, scoring 506 runs in 17 innings, at an average of 38 and a strike-rate of 156. Many of his innings have been memorable efforts under great pressure at the death.

“We’re very proud of Tristan and very chuffed that he is getting this opportunity,” Peterson told The Citizen on Tuesday. “It’s a testament to his hard work. He’s a very natural player and being aware of the situation is where he has really improved.

“His biggest strength is that he reads the game well. And he doesn’t feel the pressure because he has the skills to get off strike quickly, get in and then explode.

“He comes in in different situations and he will only get better as he builds a database of doing it in different conditions against different opposition.

“Hopefully his IPL experience now with the Mumbai Indians will help make the transition to international cricket smoother. Mixing with Kieron Pollard, he’s getting some elite thinking on middle-order batting, and he has a great opportunity to play alongside David Miller now in the Proteas side,” Peterson, who represented South Africa in 100 white-ball matches, said.

As befitting someone who could come to the crease with three wickets down inside the powerplay, or with just 20 balls left in the innings, Stubbs has the all-round game for all circumstances.

“He has sound thinking around the game and he has all the natural attributes for the middle-order – he plays spin well, he can hit sixes and he runs hard so he doesn’t use up a lot of dot balls,” Peterson said.

“He loves his golf and was a great hockey player, which is probably why he has such good wrists.

“He’s a very laid-back surfer-boy from Knysna, but very competitive and very driven to succeed. It’s been a meteoric rise for him, but I just hope people are patient with him,” coach Peterson said.

Thirteen of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad have been selected for the series in India, with Stubbs and left-arm quick Marco Jansen the only inclusions who have not yet played in the shortest format at international level.

All-rounder Wayne Parnell has also earned a recall, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje is fit again and available for South Africa for the first time since last November.

Squad: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi.

The Proteas were meant to make their return from the Covid-19 Lockdown with a tour to the West Indies in the southern hemisphere winter, but it seems it will be England touring South Africa that will provide them with their first taste of international action.

England are keen to play three ODIs and three T20 internationals from mid-November to early December, with domestic action kicking off in South Africa on November 2. While British media have speculated that the series will take place in a bio-bubble in Cape Town, it is known that Highveld venues have also been told to prepare to host the 50-over world champions.

The series against one of the Big Three provides an opportunity too good to waste for CSA to start generating some much-needed income after all cricket came to a standstill in March.

Despite this week’s series loss to Australia, England remain a powerhouse white-ball outfit and their tour could be one of the highlights of the summer, particularly since Sri Lanka will be the Test opposition over the traditional festive season schedule.

Then again, the Proteas have a score to settle with Sri Lanka, who became the first sub-continent team to win a series in South Africa with their shock 2-0 triumph in 2018/19.

South Africa’s cricketers will have four-day cricket in November and December in which to get up to full power, with the Momentum One-Day Cup scheduled for early next year. While the Mzansi Super League has reportedly been scrapped for this season due to the constraints of Lockdown, it is possible that a franchise T20 competition will be played to end the summer.

Hardus Viljoen has had a taste of Test cricket and wants more, so, with the help of the special woman in his life, he has put in the hard yards in the off-season to become an even leaner and meaner fast bowler.

The off-season is pretty much over for the Highveld Lions star as he leaves on Tuesday with the SA A side for two four-day matches in Zimbabwe and then a triangular series in Australia with India A as the other opponents.

And the 27-year-old looked in tremendous shape on Monday as the team had a middle practice session at the University of Pretoria’s Groenkloof field and is clearly not resting on the laurels of last season, when he took 47 wickets, the most in the Sunfoil Series, in nine matches at an average of just 23 and made his Test debut in January at the Wanderers and removed England captain Alastair Cook with his first ball.

The rest of his first game for South Africa did not go as well, though, as he finished with one for 79 in 15 expensive overs and then bowled four wicketless overs in the second innings as England chased down just 74 for a commanding victory.

“Last season has come and gone, no-one’s going to talk about how you bowled last year, there’s no reward on that. So I did a lot of training in the off-season and I’ve lost 10kg because I worked a lot on my fitness and my diet. My lady [girlfriend Rhemi Rynners, sister of Faf du Plessis] is into healthy eating and she helped me a lot with that, it’s become a way of life.

“I took a bit of flak for my fitness levels and it’s a personal thing – by doing this I can have a longer career and there’s less weight on my feet and legs. So I’ve worked hard on getting fitter and stronger, and it’s all about training smarter; I don’t want to just put on muscle like a rugby player,” a clearly focused Viljoen said on Monday.

“It was a good season last year, but it was also disappointing in a way because I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to in my debut. I wanted to really make an impact, so I’m working very hard on my consistency, that’s a massive thing for me. But that won’t happen in one week, it’s an ongoing process.”

Although Viljoen is desperate to earn a place back in the national team, he is being patient in that regard as well, not telling himself that he has to take a whole bunch of wickets in Zimbabwe and Australia.

“I don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on myself. These tours are good preparation for the summer and to see what my hard work has brought in terms of the things I’ve worked on in the off-season. It might be SA A, but I am still representing my country and I don’t want to take anything for granted. Our performances will obviously be looked at, but for me it’s still about how my game has progressed,” Viljoen said.

Viljoen initially sprung to prominence in limited-overs cricket, but he has taken more than 30 first-class wickets in each of the last seven seasons, with his highest average being 30.39 in 2013/14. The Waterkloof High School product whose actual name is just the initials GC, also has his sights set on a place in the Proteas limited-overs teams.

“In Test cricket, you need patience and consistency, but in T20s, for instance, I would love to just come out and bowl at 155km/h. One of my main goals last season was to bowl at 150km/h and I got to 152.4, so to bowl at 155 is another personal goal of mine.

“But you also need to execute your skills in limited-overs cricket and there’s a massive gap for a death bowler in the Proteas set-up, so I’m working on getting more skills in my arsenal. It’s not going to take one season though, you need about 10 000 hours to master those skills!

“So I have a few things to work on … ” Viljoen said.

It is clear, however, that Viljoen is not happy with his career standing in the same spot. The hunger inside him suggests he will be one to watch in Zimbabwe and Australia.

http://citizen.co.za/1190043/viljoen-desperate-to-earn-a-place-in-the-national-team/