Southampton, England - There is just too much time between now and the next World Cup for any kind of assessment to be made about South Africa’s one-day cricket.
It’s about two and a half years until Australia and New Zealand host the next World Cup, and AB de Villiers insisted on Monday that it was far too early to start talking about plans and personnel for that event.
“I’m not a big fan of looking too far ahead,” the South African captain remarked on Monday.
“The World Cup in 2015 is the ultimate goal, but we’ve got so many games between now and then that it’s virtually impossible to look too far ahead.
“We’ve got a massive series now [against England] and we’re still finding our feet with a few combinations, we are getting there and we’re not far off from where we’re looking to go.”
The World Cup will always be foremost in the minds of most South African fans, given the painful exits at practically all the tournaments, but in a side so “process driven” - the players have taken to apologising now each time they use the phrase - it doesn’t suit them to look beyond this tour.
England remain the No1one-day side in the world, the result of consistent play especially at home in the past two years, and are thus an enormous hurdle. But there are plenty of areas South Africa are looking at to improve themselves in this series and the next set of ODIs they’re involved in, against New Zealand and Pakistan in the South African summer.
Gary Kirsten has made no secret of his plans to use the one-day team to experiment with new players and combinations. Rather than Test cricket, Kirsten sees ODIs as the ideal opportunity to introduce new players to the international scene. Thus, with Jacques Kallis in a New York state of mind at the moment, Dean Elgar will probably get an extended run in this series.
Of all the frustration at that 37-ball first game, Elgar’s would have been the most profound. This series is an enormous opportunity for him to make his mark and given Kirsten’s thoughts on the ODI team, it may represent a chance to get into the Test squad at the very least.
Eoin Morgan made the interesting point yesterday that he thought the best way for him to get back into the England Test side was through the ODI format. The Irish-born left-hander has played 16 Tests for his adopted country, but was dropped after Pakistan beat England in the United Arab Emirates this year.
“The route I see for myself to get back into the Test side is through one-day… and T20 cricket. Any chance for me to score runs is huge,” said Morgan.
Elgar will be adopting a similar position, as will Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson and Lonwabo Tsotsobe. At the same time they’ll have an eye on 2015 – though they’ll probably keeping that to themselves for now – and another go at the World Cup.
TEAMS:
England: Alastair Cook (capt), Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Craig Kieswetter, Tim Bresnan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steve Finn.
South Africa: Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Dean Elgar, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers (capt), JP Duminy, Ryan McLaren, Robin Peterson, Wayne Parnell, Morné Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
OFFICIALS:
Match Referee: Andy Pycroft
Standing Umpires: Rob Bailey and Simon Taufel; Third Umpire: Kumar Dharmasena
Start: 2pm (SA time)
The Star