Du Plessis has point to prove with Kent

Had Kent not come calling Du Plessis might have been all padded up with no place to go, in T20 terms, until the Mzansi Super League in November and December.

TELFORD VICE in London

NOT a lot would seem to ride on Faf du Plessis playing for Kent in what’s left of the men’s county T20 competition.

But he could have a point to prove about his white-ball future in the awkward lull between South Africa’s disappointing 2019 World Cup and the hope for improvement offered by next year’s T20 equivalent.

Du Preez has signed to play in Kent’s last two group games, against Gloucestershire in Canterbury on Thursday against Essex at Chelmsford the next day.

He replaces Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi, who is required for international duty in a T20 triangular involving Zimbabwe in Bangladesh next month. 

Du Plessis will stay on if the county make it to the knockout rounds, which start next Wednesday with the first quarter-final and end in the final at Edgbaston on September 21.

Kent are currently third in their group, and so locked and loaded for the play-offs.

But they have suffered three losses and two washouts in their last five games.

So Du Plessis has an opportunity to remind people why he was South Africa’s leading batter in a World Cup campaign that will be remembered for his team’s failure to launch: they lost five of their eight completed games.

And to put some meat on the bones of what he told the Mumbai Mirror earlier this month: “I’m still the captain of the T20 team and very much part of it.”

By then, Quinton de Kock had been named to lead South Africa in their T20 series in India next month because Du Plessis had agreed to play in the Euro T20 Slam, which was subsequently cancelled.

Had Kent not come calling Du Plessis might have been all padded up with no place to go, in T20 terms, until the Mzansi Super League (MSL) in November and December.

That wouldn’t have been the best situation for a player and captain who wants to stay in form and relevant, particularly in this furiously fluid time in the game in South Africa.

On Tuesday, for instance, the Jozi Stars replaced the coach who took them to the title last season.

He is Enoch Nkwe — who is now South Africa’s interim team director for the tour to India, and by the look of things might be in the job beyond that.

Hence Donovan Miller, a former Jamaica under-19 player who is currently part of England’s Ashes staff and worked on their successful World Cup effort, and was part of the Stars’ retinue last year, has been appointed head coach.   

“I’ve played with some of the squad members in the past and look forward to joining up with all the guys again,” Du Plessis was quoted as saying in a Kent release on Monday.

Two of them are fellow Affies alum and former Titans teammate Heino Kuhn as well as Hardus Viljoen.

“He is a world-class batsman and, along with his leadership skills, he will be a major asset to our young side as we seek to progress to the quarter-finals and beyond in this year’s competition,” Kent director of cricket Paul Downton was quoted as saying.

Du Plessis has indicated that next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia will be his international swansong.

His journey there starts in Canterbury on Thursday.

First published by TMG Digital.

SA will face sternest T20 test in India

“If our batsmen don’t have a touch game to go with their power game they will struggle.” Herschelle Gibbs on South Africa’s T20 series in India next month. 

TELFORD VICE in London

T20 cricket is supposed to be all about surprises, but it isn’t especially noteworthy that South Africa’s men’s team have lost more than 60% of their games against India.

Neither is it news that they have nothing to show for the fact that they have won close on 60% of all their T20s.

The format seems bespoke for the Indians’ confident, dramatic style of play, and it doesn’t hurt that the country is home to T20’s biggest, boldest, brashest bash annually.

And if the Saffers are playing in the tournament tell the taxi to come back well before the final to take them to the airport. So far, anyway.

It won’t make South Africans feel any better about all that to know that the champions in four of the six editions of what will be called the T20 World Cup next year have been won by sides who have been successful in less than half their matches: England, West Indies — twice — and Sri Lanka.

Those teams have also lost more than half of their T20s against South Africa. Worse yet, in trophy terms, of the 54 other sides who have played T20s at international level only India and Pakistan — the other two world champions — and Afghanistan are more successful in the format overall than the South Africans.

Their next attempt to change all that starts in Dharamsala three weeks from Sunday, when their opponents in the first of three T20s will be those confident, dramatic Indians.

Next stop home for three against England and three more against Australia, all of them in February.

Then it’s off to Australia for the T20 World Cup, where South Africa’s first game is in Perth on October 24 — against India, who will be supported to the rafters by their 40 000 compatriots who the Aussie tourism authorities estimate will turn up for the tournament. 

Considering 15 000 Indians travelled to Australia for the 2015 World Cup, and that it looked and sounded like Virat Kohli’s side were the only team in town when they played South Africa in Melbourne, the prospect of more than double that number arriving next year is arresting.

It also lends weight to next month’s rubber, which despite not matching what will be on offer at the T20 World Cup in terms of conditions will nonetheless provide the sternest test the South Africans will face before the tournament.

Of their squad, only Quinton de Kock — the captain for the series — David Miller and Kagiso Rabada have played T20 internationals in India.

But between them the 14 selected have appeared 164 times in the big, bold, brash bash above, the Indian Premier League (IPL). That said, De Kock and Miller own 134 games of the collective experience and only six players have made it to the IPL.

That cut no ice with Herschelle Gibbs: “There’s no more excuses to play poorly in Indian conditions what with all the experience of IPL cricket.”

So, what do South Africa need to do to improve their success rate in India?

“If they can’t rotate the strike against the spinners they’re going to be in trouble,” Gibbs said. “That’s been our biggest issue going there.

“Also, if our batsmen don’t have a touch game to go with their power game they will struggle.”

It will hearten South Africans that the leading run-scorer in T20s this year among all the players on both sides is Reeza Hendricks, and that 2019’s top wicket-taker in the format in both squads is Andile Phehlukwayo.

But that’s a crude way to try and make sense of the most rapidly evolving form of the game, where margins between teams and players are shrinking so much and so fast.

It’s a bit like designing a new anti-theft device for cars today, and watching car thieves crack it tomorrow.

Now there’s a surprise.

First published by the Sunday Times.

Du Plessis says he remains T20 captain, confirms swansong at T20 World Cup

“Not at all. If I am there then a young captain can’t run his own ship.” – Faf du Plessis denies he chose club over country.

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

FAF du Plessis maintains he is still the captain of South Africa’s men’s T20 team, even though he won’t even be in the squad in India next month.

But there is less confusion about his retirement. Having hinted previously that next year’s T20 World Cup will be his international swansong, he has confirmed that to be the case.

In an interview with the Mumbai Mirror, Du Plessis was quoted as saying: “CSA [Cricket South Africa] are going to use opportunities through the season to bring in different captains in white-ball cricket to prepare for when I’m going to be done after the T20 World Cup. I’m still the captain of the T20 team and very much part of it.”

Quinton de Kock was named on Tuesday as South Africa’s captain for the three-match series, with Du Plessis set to arrive in India in time to take the reins for the Test series that will follow in October.

Asked last month to confirm that Du Plessis would miss the T20 series because he had agreed to play in the Euro T20 Slam, which was due to end on September 22 — the same day the third match of the India-South Africa rubber — team management said, “He is only going in as a replacement for Rashid [Khan] so he will come back early to join the India squad.”

Du Plessis denied to the Mirror that he had chosen club over country: “Not at all. If I am there then a young captain can’t run his own ship.

“Always he will look over his shoulder [to find out] what I’m thinking. It’s about growing leaders in a year’s time when I’m done.”

The situation was complicated further on Wednesday when the Euro T20 Slam was cancelled because of money troubles two weeks before it was scheduled to start.

Du Plessis was to have played for the Belfast Titans with Dale Steyn signed up by the Glasgow Giants.

And that despite Cricket South Africa’s acting director of cricket, Corrie van Zyl, telling Sport24 on Tuesday that Steyn, who came home from the World Cup without playing a game because of a shoulder injury, was “not yet medically ready and our information makes that very clear”.

Steyn told TMG Digital on Thursday that CSA had not granted Steyn a no-objection certificate, which he would have needed to play in Europe.

Dave Rundle, Steyn’s agent, said the fast bowler was told CSA had been “waiting for medical clearance” before they would issue the certificate.

De Kock to captain in India T20s, but no Morris or Steyn

“Nope.” – Chris Morris’ reply when asked if he had retired or signed a Kolpak contract.

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

QUINTON de Kock is easily cast as cricket’s unlikeliest captain, an opinion he will have the chance to change in South Africa’s men’s T20 series in India in September.

De Kock led South Africa in two one-day internationals in Sri Lanka in August last year, and his team lost both.

But Cricket South Africa (CSA) have put him in charge of next month’s T20 rubber, which won’t feature Faf du Plessis — previously the all-format captain — with Rassie van der Dussen as his deputy.

Du Plessis said in July, after a disappointing World Cup, that he would consider his future in the white-ball formats.

“The T20 series gives us the last chance to have a look at our leadership and batting options as the next edition of the men’s T20 World Cup [in Australia in October and November next year] is now little more than a year away, which is why we have gone with an inexperienced leadership group,” a release on Tuesday quoted CSA’s acting director of cricket, Corrie van Zyl, as saying.

“This is our last chance to do this before we settle on an established squad.

“I would like to stress that Faf du Plessis remains an important part of our plans for white-ball cricket.”

The release also revealed the squad for the three Tests that will follow the T20s.

Neither group included Chris Morris, who the release said “did not make himself available for selection”.

That sparked thoughts that the fast bowler, one of his team’s better performers at the World Cup, had retired or signed a Kolpak deal.

Asked on Tuesday for a reason, Morris said he was “just unavailable”.

Had he taken either of the above options?

“Nope.”

Dale Steyn, who hung up his Test whites last Monday but is still on board for the short, sharp stuff, was also excluded.

“They obviously lost my number in the reshuffling of coaching staff,” Steyn wrote on his Twitter account.

Temba Bavuma was named as Test vice-captain, while Van der Dussen — another World Cup standout — on Monday inherited Kolpakian Duanne Olivier’s CSA contract.

That would seem to be instructive about CSA’s thinking on the leadership in years to come.

Fast bowler Anrich Nortjé, left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy and wicketkeeper-batter Rudi Second have earned places in the Test squad for the first time.

Bavuma, spinning alrounder Bjorn Fortuin and Nortjé are also in their first T20 squad.

Aiden Markram, Theunis de Bruyn and Lungi Ngidi weren’t part of the discussion for the T20s as they will be busy with South Africa A’s concurrent four-day series in India.

Keshav Maharaj is the first-choice Test spinner, but he will have Muthsamy and off-spinner Dane Piedt — who played the most recent of his seven Tests in August 2016 — for company in the squad.

“We feel we have covered all the options for the conditions we are likely to encounter on the sub-continent with Muthusamy and Dane Piedt, who was far and away the leading wicket-taker in our [franchise] four-day competition [claiming 54 at 27.74, 20 more than second-placed Dane Paterson], providing the back-up to Keshav Maharaj,” the release quoted CSA’s acting director of cricket, Corrie van Zyl, as saying.

Zubayr Hamza, who made 41 and nought against Pakistan on a challenging Wanderers pitch in January in his only Test, will try to fill the vast vacancy left by Hashim Amla, who retired on Thursday. 

The selected squads reflect the ravages South Africa have endured due to retirements and Kolpak defections.

Five of the 15 picked for the Tests against Sri Lanka in February were not part of Tuesday’s squad, and only six of the 14 who did duty in the last two of the three T20s against the Lankans in March will go to India.

Of the 17 who were part of South Africa’s last Test series in India, in November 2015, when the home side won 3-0, only six will make the return journey.

Squads:

Test: Faf du Plessis (captain), Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Zubayr Hamza, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortjé, Vernon Philander, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Rudi Second.

T20: Quinton de Kock (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Junior Dala, Bjorn Fortuin, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, David Miller, Anrich Nortjé, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Jon-Jon Smuts.