SA vs ENG | Pieter Malan set to make controversial debut for South Africa
Pieter Malan is set to make a debut for South Africa in the second Test of the ongoing home series against England that will create a violation of CSA’s racial selection policy. According to the board's policy, six black players, two of them black African, should be included in the XI.
Pieter Malan was named in the squad as a specialist opener and with Aiden Markram being ruled out of the rest of the four-match Test series with a fractured finger, Malan is all set to open for South Africa in the second test in Newlands.
But with Malan’s(who is white) inclusion, South Africa's racial selection policy will be violated that says there should be six black players in the eleven, amongst whom two-player has to be African black. There were only four blacks in action at Centurion for the first Test, and just one of them was black African.
Temba Bavuma who is black missed the first Test with a hip injury and middle-order batsman Rassie van der Dussen played at his position of number 5 and scored an important 51 in the second innings.
"It will be tough to leave a guy like Rassie out," coach Mark Boucher said on Sunday after South Africa won the first Test by 107 runs.
A way to improve the race equation would be to bring back Bavuma and promote Van der Dussen to the opening slot, however, Boucher strongly opposed the thought of playing a non-regular opener at the important slot.
"Pieter Malan was selected in the squad. For us to go messing around with the opening position wouldn't be clever. He has done a lot of good work over a long period of time. It's his home ground. At the moment, we're leaning towards a straight swap of opening batsmen," said Boucher, strongly suggesting Malan’s inclusion.
Malan, 30, had a decent domestic season this year with Cobras, scoring 199 runs at an average of 33.16 from six innings. In his 245 innings overall, he averages 45.16 and has made 32 centuries.
Boucher asserted that Bavuma should be given some time before directly playing him a Test match after an injury recovery.
"Temba still felt pain in the side [on Saturday] otherwise we were thinking about using him as a catcher [in the field]. Temba has been under pressure but I don't want to throw him to the wolves. Temba is very good and we will work with him. We understand transformation and we understand we need to do a lot of hard work on a lot of players."
South Africa’s dreadful run in the World Test Championship saw some respite after their 107 runs win over England at Centurion. This was their first win in the Test Championship from the 4 matches they have played so far in the tournament.
South Africa will take on England for the second Test in Newlands, starting from Friday (January 3).