Stiaan van Zyl is set to start the first Test against the West Indies in a fortnight, with South Africa captain Hashim Amla saying he had benefitted from time spent with the squad on their last couple of tours.
Van Zyl, an elegant left-hander from the Western Cape, has forced his way into the national squad in the old-fashioned way – by consistently scoring truckloads of runs. That he has looked stylish while doing so is a bonus, that elegance allied to plenty of substance in recent seasons.
He has accompanied the team on tours to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe this year, which Amla believes will help ease the nerves ahead of his expected debut at SuperSport Park.
“One of the biggest aspects is to see how the team operates, and having had him around for a year, he’d have gained a lot of experience and knowledge about what international cricket demands of him,” said Amla.
The 27-year-old is, according to national selection convener Andrew Hudson, the “logical choice” to replace JP Duminy, who will miss the first Test with a knee injury. Duminy is likely to be available from the second Test, subject to medical advice, though it wouldn’t surprise, given his importance to the one-day side, if he were to sit out the Port Elizabeth match as well as a precaution with the World Cup on the horizon.
There’s little argument about Van Zyl’s form, which has been outstanding over the last seven seasons. Only twice has his season’s average in the Sunfoil Series (and previously the SuperSport Series) been below 40, and he’s also averaged above 50 in four of the last seven seasons. Last summer he was the competition’s leading run-scorer with 933 runs at an average of 71.30.
Of Van Zyl’s 14 first-class centuries, seven have been over 150 and two in the 140s, and if there was a criticism, it’s that in 95 first-class matches he’s yet to register a double-hundred.
If Van Zyl does slot into the middle order – most likely in the No7 spot recently occupied by Duminy – it will leave South Africa short on experience in that area of their batting line-up, Quinton de Kock having played just four Tests and likely to bat at No6.
However, against a weak West Indies team, the South Africans would not expect to find themselves having to rely on Nos6 and 7 for the bulk of their runs.
Van Zyl appears to be slightly ahead of the other batsman picked in the squad yesterday, Temba Bavuma, who has rapidly become a vital component of the Highveld Lions side. The 24-year-old right-hander had his break-out season last summer, scoring 714 runs in the Sunfoil Series. On the back of that, he was picked for the South African ‘A’ team that toured Australia in the winter, when he made 162 in the first ‘Test’ against Australia ‘A’ and finished the two-match series with an average of 108.50.
The West Indies, who arrived yesterday, have struggled in the Test arena for the last decade, winning just seven of 33 series – four of those against lowly Bangladesh. Their only noteworthy success in that time was a 1-0 series win over England in 2009.
Amla, however, cautioned against complacency. “We know they are a team that have a lot of explosive power and play a colourful and very exciting brand of cricket, (so) there’s no reason for us to hold them in lighter esteem.”
Kagiso Rabada also received a call-up to the Test squad, though it appears he’ll be there more in an observer capacity.
lThe Proteas will take on the Springboks in the Nelson Mandela Legacy Cup at the Wanderers on Friday (6pm). Tickets at www.ticketpros.co.za
SA Test squad
Hashim Amla (capt), AB de Villiers, Alviro Petersen, Dean Elgar, Faf du Plessis, Stiaan van Zyl, Quinton de Kock, Vernon Philander, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Morné Morkel, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Abbott, Kagiso Rabada - The Star