South Africa’s Test squad has only seven players » Today Latest Stories

January is the period South Africa has set aside for its flagship T20 tournament, which launches with great fanfare in 2023. To ensure its success – which depended on the availability of its biggest stars for the tournament – CSA lost the ODI series against Australia despite this. There was a chance it could impact their qualification for the 2023 World Cup. Although they tried to reschedule the upcoming Tests against New Zealand, they were once again left with a decision to make. In short, the first choice is to play with the SA20. These newbies will head to the other side of the world.

Neil Brand, South African captain

Brand is yet to play a Test, but when he does, on February 4, he will be captain of his country. Brand is an experienced local cricketer, who spent time at Cardiff MCC and built his career at Centurion. He also spent time with Somerset and Glamorgan Second XIs. He is 94 away from 3,000 first-class runs and has a batting average of 39.27, including six hundreds, and also has a solid track record as a captain.

He has captained 18 of his 51 Premier League appearances, including a large part of the 2021-22 season when he led the Giants to the National Premier League Cup and finished as the competition’s 10th top scorer. He also captained the South Africa A team against the West Indies A earlier this year, a series organized to help prepare players for the New Zealand Tests which South Africa won 2-1. Brand scored a century in the opening match and was the fifth highest run-scorer in the series.

Top six

Three of the top six are players who have been in or around South Africa’s Test team: Keegan Pietersen, David Bedingham and Zubair Hamza and all three have strong records. Pietersen and Hamza were the top and third highest run-scorers in South Africa’s A series against West Indies and all three are participating in the ongoing rubber against India.

Petersen was named for the Boxing Day Test after being dropped last summer against the West Indies, scoring 2 but has four half-centuries in 12 Tests and 11 years of experience in the domestic system. Beddingham, who thought about trying to play for England when he was at Durham, returned home and made his debut against India and impressed with 56 runs while Hamza could feature in the New Year’s Test. Hamza last played Test cricket for New Zealand in 2022, and has six ODIs, 212 runs and a highest score of 62. He is also the fourth-highest run-scorer in the ongoing four-day domestic competition and appears to have found his mark. After serving a nine-month ban for a doping violation.

The only other batsman in the 14-man squad is Khaya Zondo, who has played five Tests, most recently against Australia earlier this year. He was the fourth highest run-scorer in the series against West Indies A.

Reynard van Tonder, the former South Africa Under-19 batsman, who has a first-class average of 42.84, is likely to feature in New Zealand alongside Ruan de Swardt, who averages 45.75.

Attack pace

Former Colback players Duane Olivier and Dane Patterson will lead the attack and provide speed, movement and most importantly experience. Olivier, who played 15 Tests, was establishing himself as a regular in the South African side before going to Yorkshire in 2019. He has 59 Test wickets, at an average of 21.93, including a best of 6 for 37 against Pakistan, three five-fors and a ten-wicket haul. Wicket.

Patterson, a bowler in Vernon Philander’s mold for precise seam movement, played two Tests for South Africa in 2020 before a short stint as a bowler and then an outfielder for Nottinghamshire. He has over 550 first-class wickets at an average of 23.63, and the conditions in New Zealand are expected to suit him.

The rest of the attack will be made up of uncapped players, including all-rounder Mihlali Mbongwana, who was named in the ODI squad for the India series but did not get a cap. He earned praise from T20I captain Aiden Markram, who said he “thinks the game in a brilliant way” and adapts well to the conditions. He served as third and sometimes fourth seamer in the series against West Indies A but played only one first-class match this season. Alongside him is another former Under-19 player, Tshepo Muriki, the swing bowler with 93 first-class matches to his name.

Spinners

Offspinner Dane Piedt played nine Tests for South Africa between 2014 and 2019 before becoming part of a wave of cricketers who left the country to join the Major League Cricket circuit. He now lives in Washington, USA, but responded to a distress call from Test coach Shukri Konrad to return to South Africa this season with the aim of traveling to New Zealand. Bidt played two matches for the Knights’ second-class side and was the leading wicket-taker in the series against West Indies A and can expect to add to his international caps on this trip.

While New Zealand may not be the place to play two spinners in a Test, Conrad has decided to do so, with the addition of 37-year-old leg-spinner Sean von Berg. Von Berg has played on the South African domestic scene since 2009 and has regularly been among the leading wicket-takers in first-class competition. He currently plays for Boland and has 15 wickets from five matches in the four-day tournament.

Wicket keeper

Clyde Fortuyn was part of the South Africa Under-19 side that won the Under-19 World Cup in 2014, but did not go on to reach the level of his teammates, Markram or Kagiso Rabada. Instead, he made 74 first-class international appearances, 68 of them as wicketkeeper, and was the only wicket-keeper used in the A series against the West Indies. Although his overall batting average is only 27.10, he has shown recent form and is the fifth highest run-scorer in his history. First division competition last season.