Looking at South Africa's bowling options for the World Cup
Under coach Ottis Gibson, South Africa's pace bowling attack has developed into a well-oiled, ruthless unit, especially in Test cricket. Despite the retirement of Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott taking a Kolpak deal, the Proteas still have a fantastic bunch of players to choose from.
And Gibson seems to have enhanced the fast bowling stocks in the country, with the likes of Anrich Nortje, Duanne Olivier, and
While the bowlers have gone from strength to strength, the same cannot be said of the batting, which looks even more vulnerable after the retirement of AB de Villiers. With South Africa no longer having all-rounders of the calibre of Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis or even big Brian McMillan to call upon and it's affected the balance of the squad, with the Proteas not being able to boast of the batting depth that sides like England or Australia have.
Kallis' absence, in particular, has been a body blow, with the Proteas not really being able to find someone in the top six who can chip in with the ball consistently. JP Duminy can roll his arm over, but having him as the fifth bowler didn't help the Proteas in their 2015 campaign, with de Villiers often forced to turn to himself to finish the quota of overs required.
As seen on The Cricket Blog, Gibson has experimented with a variety of combinations as he seeks to find the one that delivers World Cup glory. In the first ODI of their ongoing series against Pakistan in Port Elizabeth, he went with a 6-2-3, opting to play two
Fast bowlers: Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier, and Dane Paterson
Steyn's return to cricket last year and his obvious pedigree has made it difficult for South Africa to omit him from their World Cup plans. However there remain some doubts over his fitness, and the last thing South Africa would want is for Steyn to break down midway through a key World Cup match.
Lungi Ngidi's unfortunate injury has robbed him of valuable match practice in the lead up to the World Cup. Rabada is a certain pick, and the Proteas would probably also like to include Ngidi, but a tail consisting of Rabada, Steyn, Ngidi and Tahir looks too long for the modern game. While Steyn and Rabada are not incapable of holding the bat, Proteas fans wouldn't count on them to be able to make 20's and 30's consistently.
Olivier got his chance in the ODI setup on the back of a fantastic test series against Pakistan, but one gets the feeling that currently, he's too one dimensional for the 50 over
In an ideal world, South Africa would probably like to select two of these four. However, among them, only Morris is really capable of hitting the high 140's, and he's too inconsistent for their liking, with boundary balls and wides a given in almost every over. A fit and firing Morris would be a dream player for Gibson.
The World Cup probably comes too early for young Mulder. Pretorius has decent batting pedigree, but only bowls in the mid
Spinners: Imran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Keshav Maharaj
Given India and England's success with two spinners, South Africa may be tempted to try Shamsi and Tahir together. Neither are good batsmen though, and it's more likely the Proteas will continue with Tahir as their No.1 spinner, with Shamsi available as the backup. While Maharaj has established himself as their No.1 test spinner, a World Cup ticket looks unlikely for him, unless one of Tahir or Shamsi
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