Photo Credit: Cricket South Africa
Proteas Head Coach Mark Boucher is hoping that his players give him a ‘proper headache’ by performing well when they formally kick-off their tour of England on Tuesday.
South Africa arrived in the country over the weekend for their two-month long tour and have been slowly acclimatising to the northern hemisphere summer at their early base in Taunton, in the south west.
First up they are due to face the hosts in a three-match One-Day International (ODI) series starting on
19 July.
As part of their preparation for that initial leg of the journey, the Proteas are scheduled to take on the England Lions in two 50 over warm up matches – the first of which is at the Cooper Associates County Ground in Taunton on Tuesday (tomorrow).
They will then make their way to Worcester for the second match at New Road on Thursday. Both matches will get underway at 11:00 local time (12:00 SAST).
Addressing the media at his arrival press conference on Monday, Boucher explained that the warm- up matches would be a good place for everyone to stake a claim for an opportunity to play.
“We’ve got quite a few options and these games that we’ll be playing in the next few days will hopefully allow us to understand and get to know where the players are as individuals,” he said. “So we have quite a good quite a good idea barring one or two extra batters who our front line-up is going to be.
“We’ll just have to see how the form plays itself out and hopefully we get the proper headache of having everyone in the runs.”
Boucher also spoke about what he and his coaching team were hoping to achieve from the two games, the second of which will give them a good indication as to who the make-up of the starting XI will be in match one against the world champions.
“There are 17 players, so as much as we can we’ll try to give everyone a go,” he explained. “Unfortunately, it’s two games of cricket, in the first one we’ve opted for a game where we’ll try and get all our batters to bat and then all of our bowlers to bowl. So we don’t know how the game’s going to plan out.
“We’re having training and practises around these two games now as well where we’ll try to accommodate everyone. It’s quite difficult to do that when you’ve got 17 guys to look after. The second game will be a List A game so it’s basically the 11 that you choose, and I’d like to think that it’s going to be close to what we are looking to play in the first game (versus England).”
As for keeping everyone in the squad happy, Boucher says that communication was important for any successful squad.
“It’s not new to us where we’ve had big squads of even 19,” he added. “I think that communication is key and the players need to understand that out of your squad, only 11 can actually go onto the park.
“In the short period of time that we’ve got before the first One-Day International, we need to look after those 11 players as we get close to the starting game, so we’ll see what we can do to try and accommodate everyone. The conversations will be had and hopefully everyone gets an opportunity to put their case forward.”
Proteas ODI squad against England
Keshav Maharaj (captain, Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Quinton de Kock (Momentum Multiply Titans), Reeza Hendricks (Imperial Lions), Marco Jansen (Gbets Warriors), Heinrich Klaasen (Momentum Multiply Titans), Janneman Malan (GbetsRocks), Aiden Markram (Momentum Multiply Titans), David Miller (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Lungi Ngidi (Momentum Multiply Titans), Andile Phehlukwayo (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Dwaine Pretorius (North West Dragons), Anrich Nortje (Gbets Warriors), Tabraiz Shamsi (Momentum Multiply Titans), Rassie van der Dussen (Imperial Lions), Lizaad Williams (Momentum Multiply Titans), Khaya Zondo (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Kyle Verreynne (Six Gun Grill Western Province).
South Africa ODI Tour to England Itinerary
Warm-up matches
Tuesday, 12 July
England Lions vs South Africa – Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton
Thursday, 14 July
England Lions vs South Africa – New Road, Worcester
ODIs
Tuesday, 19 July
England vs South Africa – The Riverside, Durham
Friday, 22 July
England vs South Africa – Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester
Sunday, 24 July
England vs South Africa – Headingley Stadium, Leeds
