London, June 26: The South African selectors must put their weight behind the senior players for the Twenty20 World Cup later this year in Sri Lanka following the failure of a young Proteas team during the tri-series in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe thrashed South Africa in the final of the T20 tri-series in Harare by nine wickets, and this defeat has once again fuelled suggestions that the Proteas youngsters are still not ready to play at such a big tournament, according to Sports24 cricket journalist Rob Houwing.
Houwing believes since the Proteas haven’t won any major tournament despite performing consistently, there would be extra pressure on them to perform, which would in turn pressurize the selectors to pick the best possible team for the Twenty20 World Cup.
“The Proteas are extremely mindful of the huge public pressure, understandably, to deliver an ICC limited-overs tournament trophy after many years of suffering on that front,” Houwing said.
“So South Africa will take the Sri Lankan event seriously ... and I imagine they will also pin their faith pretty strongly in experience for it, bearing in mind this debacle of sorts with a lorry-load of raw or relatively raw customers failing to grab the Zimbabwean opportunity to make a mark,” he added.
“Yet when chances like this do come about, they have be to capitalised on nevertheless ... and let’s just say the trip ended up being a good one to miss, generally speaking, by gnarly senior Proteas like AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel,” he added.
Houwing further said: “Their very necessary return to the T20 mix in Sri Lanka was only highlighted; with it will come a comforting restoration of “order” in so many respects, as they contemplate a group also featuring the host nation and their highly unlikely current nemesis Zimbabwe, intriguingly enough.”
© ANI
