Not-so-sweet 16 named in early SA World Cup squad

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

ALL 16 members of the squad that lost the one-day series in Australia 4-1 last month have been included in SA’s preliminary selection of 30 players for next year’s World Cup.

That would be cause for alarm if it did not reflect the fact that it will be up to largely the same players to redeem themselves at the tournament. They are, with few exceptions, SA’s finest.

JP Duminy, who missed the Australian tour through injury, is among the exceptions and will be central to SA’s bid to win what would be only their second major trophy. He was named in the squad on Wednesday along with fellow recoverees Aaron Phangiso and Beuran Hendricks.

An additional 14 players will be in the mix until SA trim their squad to the final 15 in January. Names that stick out from this group are Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk and Andrew Puttick.

Tsotsobe has looked leaner and meaner for the Lions this summer than he has done in recent campaigns, and is the leading wicket-taker in the franchise One-Day Cup with 12 scalps at an average of 18.08. The Dolphins’ Van Wyk and the Cobras’ Puttick are the top runscorers in the competition with 394 and 353 runs respectively from five innings each.

Seam bowling is a strong string in the bows of eight of the 14 extra players, an indication of the importance of keeping a ready supply of quicks on hand to slot seamlessly into a competition in which SA will play six matches in as many venues, three each in Australia and New Zealand, in the space of 26 days. And that’s just their group games.

SA preliminary 2015 World Cup squad: AB de Villiers (captain), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Marchant de Lange, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk, David Wiese.