Gone are the days when a bilateral series shortly before a World Cup was regarded as a chance for players to force their way into the squad for the main event.Â
In the modern era, coaches have piles of data on their players with a plethora of plans to boot. By this stage, they know exactly what their options are.
Which means South African fans can sit back and enjoy what is always a fiercely contested rivalry against Australia with the first of three-match T20 International series on Wednesday evening with others following in quick succession on Friday and Sunday, all at Kingsmead which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first test match played at the famous ground.
After that the action moves to the ODI format with five matches to be played between 7-17 September, the first two in Bloemfontein and the rest in Potchefstroom, Centurion and the Wanderers.
Given that the 50-over format is commanding the majority of the world’s attention with the World Cup starting in India on 5 October, both T20 squads have something of an experimental look to them with a host of established stars rested.
In fact, Australia will be without injured former captain Steve Smith and fast bowler Mitchell Starc for the whole tour after initially been selected. Veteran opener David Warner is also rested from the entire tour.
Fulltime captain, Pat Cummins is also injured – allrounder Mitch Marsh will captain both teams - while Josh Hazlewood and star allrounder, Cameron Green, will not play the T20s.
The hosts will make do without Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje for the T20s providing valuable opportunities for Tristan Stubbs and/or Dewald Brevis while former T20 captain Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen are recalled.
Lungi Ngidi is likely to lead the attack with Gerald Coetzee keen to unleash his pace against the tourists.
One of the most important objectives for coach Rob Walter and the medical staff will be a successful return to action for spinner Keshav Maharaj who ruptured an Achilles tendon in the final test match of the year against the West Indies in March and has been in a race-against-time to be fit for the World Cup. His value as a player, experience and status as vice-captain is seen as crucial in balancing the team.
NEW FACES
New players to look out for among the tourists squads are left-arm speedster Spencer Johnson, who inevitably suffers from comparisons with his name-sake with the same action, Mitchell, but who is a very fine prospect in his own right.
Twenty-one-year-old legspinner Tanveer Sangha may only be used in the event of injury to No 1 Adam Zampa, unless the Aussies want to give him much needed game-time having missed the last year with a stress fracture.
Aaron Hardie, the latest product from the Western Australia allrounder factory, is following in the footsteps of Marsh and Green while opener Matthew Short, the leading run-scorer in last year’s Big Bash League, is given the chance to open the innings in the T20 series in the absence of Warner and Smith who had been slated to do the job when the squads were first selected.
Ordinarily a Proteas squad of 16 players for just three 20-over games and a whopping 19 for the five ODIs might betray a lack of clarity among Walter and his leadership group but the coach has made it clear that tour will, in effect, double-up as a ‘camp’ for the best national players.
Most will be told well in advance which games they will be playing and what the plan for the tour is. They certainly will not all be expected to cram into change-rooms designed to accommodate 13.
These great rivals have played 22 T20 Internationals against each other in bilateral series and World Cups with Australia comfortably ahead with 14 wins to South Africa’s eight. But it is a different story in the ODIs. Very different.
It may surprise some South African fans, given the history of losing some crucial games over the years, to read that their team has won 51 to Australia’s 48 matches of the 103 games they have played.
There have been three ties including, of course, the heart-breaking one in the semifinal of the 1999 World Cup which saw Hansie Cronje’s team eliminated.
But that’s not even the most eye-catching statistic. Perhaps Australian fans, and players, will more inclined to remember that South Africa have won a startling 11 of the last 12 ODIs between the teams, including back-to-back clean sweeps at home in 2016/17 (5-0) and 2019/20 when they won 3-0.
That is a record they would, no doubt, concede is embarrassing. They’ll need no better incentive when the 50-over cricket starts.
AUSTRALIA T20 SQUAD:
Travis Head, Matthew Short, Tim David, Josh Inglis (wkt), Ashton Turner, Mitchell Marsh (captain), Sean Abbott, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Ellis, Spencer Johnson, Adam Zampa
SOUTH AFRICA T20 SQUAD:
Aiden Markram (captain), Temba Bavuma, Matthew Breetzke, Reeza Hendricks, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen, Dewald Brevis, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Gerald Cotzee, Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj, Sisanda Magala, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lizaad Williams.
AUSTRALIA ODI SQUAD:
Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wkt), Alex Carey (wkt), Ashton Turner, Mitchell Marsh (captain), Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Marnus Labuschagne, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Agar, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Tanveer Sangha, Spencer Johnson, Adam Zampa.
SOUTH AFRICA ODI SQUAD:
Temba Bavuma (captain), Quinton de Kock (wkt), Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj, Sisanda Magala, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.