With the horror of the Proteas versus Afghanistan ODI series now a thing of the past, Rob Walter and his team turn their attention to another minnow side that is theoretically easy to underestimate – step forward please Ireland.
While the Afghan disaster was played in Sharjah, the games against Ireland, which comprise of two T20s and three ODIs will be played in Abu Dhabi. And South Africa really needs to up their game.
Ireland, like Afghanistan, are a team on the rise. And while the Irish might not have quite as much to play for as Afghanistan, South Africa will need to take a big step up in application and focus if they are to walk away from the Ireland matches without further egg on their face.
The squads that will do duty against Ireland are largely the same as the group that performed so poorly against Afghanistan. Ryan Rickelton and Matthew Breetzke have arrived to do T20 duty, and Rassie van der Dussen is back for the ODIs, but anyone who was hoping to see names like Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj, Dwaine Pretorius and Quinton de Kock on the team sheet will be disappointed as they remain rested (or in the West Indies doing their thing in the Caribbean Premier League).
And while the list of absentee names is impressive, the reality is that the squad on duty should be more than powerful enough to win the series at a canter. There’s an abundance of experience and a depth and history that simply cannot be matched by the Irish.
More importantly though, South Africa needs to forget about their opposition, the players who aren’t there and the uncomfortable conditions in the UAE and focus on the things that they are able to control. They need to get the basics right and execute their plans effectively.
And then the stars need to step up and lead from the front. While any team that has been shorn of the quality that is missing from the Proteas line-up will feel the loss, there is still sufficient class on show to do the business. Aiden Markram is a global star. Temba Bavuma’s T20 struggles are well documented, but his ODI average is 44.91, while Rassie van der Dussen’s average of 52.44 puts him in ninth place on the all-time list of highest ODI averages.
Afghanistan crushed the Proteas by 177 runs in Sharjah to claim a historic ODI series win. #AFGvSA pic.twitter.com/D3alioTthO
— SA Cricket magazine (@SACricketmag) September 20, 2024
It’s the bowling department that is perhaps a little less blessed with experience, but the reality with the Afghan series was that the batting was horrible – the bowling was a whole lot less of an issue.
The series against Ireland and Afghanistan have been billed as developing depth, with CSA management and coaches talking about increasing the pool of internationally experienced players. This is a noble pursuit and one, that if done successfully, will be highly beneficial. One only needs to look at what Rassie Erasmus has achieved with the Springboks and how he has developed a broad pool of experience and talent from which to draw on to see how this approach can be successful.
But what Rassie and the Springboks have also done, is develop a winning culture. And developing that winning culture and way of doing things needs to come first. That is the hard part. It doesn’t matter how big your playing pool is if their primary experience of being part of the national team is losing.
Winning at the highest level is a habit and that’s the experience that players need to taste when they are added to the national pool. If that cannot be delivered upon then the whole exercise is a waste of time and nothing has been gained at all, aside from some time at home with the family for the handful of players who were spared the embarrassment of making the trip.
The Proteas versus Ireland fixtures are as follows:
- Friday 27 September: 1st T20I, 17:30
- Sunday 29 September: 2nd T20I, 17:30
- Wednesday 2 October: 1st ODI, 13:30
- Friday 4 October: 2nd ODI, 13:30
- Monday 7 October: 3rd ODI, 13:30
