Cape Town – Proteas fans have been waiting to see AB de Villiers for so long that he may as well sit out another game.
Wait, that’s being flippant. But if analysed closely, shouldn’t De Villiers rather miss Wednesday’s T20 series decider against Sri Lanka at Newlands?
The 32-year-old has already expressed his reservations about playing Test cricket in future. Having ruled himself out of South Africa’s next three series – New Zealand (away), England(away) and Bangladesh (home) – the right-hander feels that he may only be ready for the longer version of the game when India roll into town next summer.
De Villiers is committed to one-day international cricket, with the ultimate goal being to win the 2019 World Cup. But where does that leave him with regards to T20 Internationals?
He has been added to the squad for the Newlands clash against Sri Lanka, but what is the point? He scored a sparkling 134 not out off just 103 balls for Northerns on Sunday in his first competitive game of cricket since July 17 last year, when he turned out for the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean T20 league.
That would indicate that De Villiers’ troublesome elbow has healed, and that he is ready for international cricket. But the bigger picture dictates that he shouldn’t be in the starting XI on Wednesday.
While South Africa were unable to wrap up a series win at the Wanderers on Sunday – making the Newlands clash a decider – it at least gave coach Russell Domingo an opportunity to cast his eye over a number of new faces who would need to take the team forward in the absence, either through injury or impending retirements, of the likes of De Villiers and Hashim Amla.
The same goes for the bowlers, which is why it was important to see Lungi Ngidi and Wayne Parnell open the bowling at Centurion and the Wanderers.
Heino Kuhn has waited a long time to get a proper chance to prove himself at international level in all three formats, but it has never quite materialised, with only a handful of T20 caps to his name.
He played some sensational shots on Sunday before getting out for 29 off 20 balls, and will be a better player for the experience.
His opening partner Jon-Jon Smuts has been a leading performer in domestic limited-overs cricket for a while too, and the same can be said for No 3 batsman Theunis de Bruyn.
The talented Mangaliso Mosehle has a tough task in trying to push for Quinton de Kock’s place as a wicket-keeper batsman, but the two T20s against Sri Lanka gave him a taste of international cricket. Another top-order player in
Reeza Hendricks is also hoping to get his first outing on Wednesday.
So, why not just continue with the process of giving these players an opportunity under pressure, in a must-win game? T20 is an ideal environment to introduce newcomers to the highest level.
They will gain much more out of it than someone like De Villiers, who may not even be an ever-present figure in T20 Internationals going forward. His focus is on ODI cricket and the IPL, and he can return to lead the Proteas in Saturday’s first 50-over clash against Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth.
While the Newlands faithful would surely love to see De Villiers out in the middle, the better option would be to keep him on the backburner for just a few more days, in the national interest…
@ashfakmohamed