Only three players from South Africa’s haphazard squad that visited New Zealand in February—Danes Piedt, Dane Paterson, and David Bedingham—have been picked for their upcoming red-ball assignment, which is against the West Indies in August. While Paterson, 35, has been picked to offer experience in the absence of Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen, and Piedt, 34, to have a second spinner in addition to Keshav Maharaj, Bedingham is seen to be crucial to South Africa’s long-format batting future.
All the other players, save from batsman Matthew Breetzke, who has received his first Test call-up, were involved in South Africa’s home series against India earlier this year. Breetzke, who plays for Northants now, was on the South African A team that visited Sri Lanka the previous year.
Following his recent retirement from international cricket, Dean Elgar will offer batting support to a top five that is expected to comprise David Bedingham, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, and Temba Bavuma.
South Africa’s Team Combination
Red-ball coach Shukri Conrad confirmed that Stubbs would take over the No. 3 spot, with de Zorzi moving up into Elgar’s opening slot.
“Technically Stubbs is one of the best around,” Conrad said at a press conference. “He’s the type of cricketer that I want at the top of the order. And I think he has got all the makings of a top-class No. 3 batter. He will get a really good run and he is definitely one for the future. Some might say it’s a big call, but I certainly won’t be throwing someone in at the deep end and give him a task that I didn’t think he was capable of handling.”
After missing out on Test duty in the home series against the West Indies in March 2023, wicketkeeper-batter Ryan Rickelton has been called up and will face off against veteran gloveman Kyle Verreynne for the No. 6 place. The only seam-bowling allrounder in the squad is Wiaan Mulder, who also last played Tests at home against West Indies, after Jansen was rested from the tour.
“Given the hectic schedules and not necessarily for South Africa – you take someone like Marco, who would have had two months at an IPL straight to a World Cup, straight into an MLC – the plan was always for different guys to be getting breaks at different times,” Conrad said. “So this is Marco’s time where we felt we can do some really good work with him from a rehab and conditioning point of view, and if there’s some technical work that needs to happen.”
Jansen will also miss the October Tests in Bangladesh and “be ready for Sri Lanka and Pakistan”, Conrad said. “And then another quick will have the Bangladesh series off and be ready for Sri Lanka and Pakistan. So it’s conversations that Rob [Walter, the white-ball coach] and I have been having for the longest time now.
“We want to make sure that we manage these players properly. They never get time to actually do some work on their bodies and any technical stuff. It’s not a holiday.”
Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi will front the pace attack; Nortje was not taken into consideration since he chose to forego a central contract this year in order to concentrate mainly on Twenty20 cricket. The other two alternatives for pace are left-armer Nandre Burger and Paterson.
World Test Championship Cycle
Since losing to India in the New Year’s Test due to missing the New Zealand series and SA20 obligations, South Africa’s first-choice Test players have not played. Despite having just played four games, South Africa is currently in seventh place on the WTC points table after losing that series 2-0.
With eight more Test matches left in this cycle—two in the West Indies, two in Bangladesh in October, and home series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka—they are hoping to position themselves to contend for a spot in the World T20 Championship.
“We’ve got eight test matches left in the cycle and whilst one doesn’t want to look too far ahead, in order to give ourselves a good crack at it, we probably need to win at least seven,” Conrad said. “That’s part of the end goal. We know that every Test series is going to be a challenging one. But when we play to our full potential, I think we can obviously get the right results. We’re still very much in the mix.”
Before leaving for the West Indies, the squad players Bavuma, Breetzke, de Zorzi, Mulder, Paterson, Stubbs, and Verreynne who are not competing in the MLC or on the county circuit will participate in a four-day training camp in Durban. The first Test begins on August 7 in Trinidad, and the second one is held in Guyana a week later.
South Africa’s Test Squad
Temba Bavuma, David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne
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