Cape Town (South Africa), May 13 (ANI): South Africa would do well to take lessons from England on Twenty20 international selection policy, a Sports24.com report has opined.
Commonly no match for South Africa for several years in one-day cricket generally, England have significantly remodelled their battle-plans more recently and, it appears, worked themselves into a position where they are suddenly both outplaying and outsmarting their old southern hemisphere foes.
According to the web site, England has pretty much had the Proteas’ number in the limited-overs arena since 2008, when they trounced them 4-0 in the NatWest Series that closely followed South Africa’s historic 2-1 Test series triumph on enemy soil.
Since then they have been responsible for eliminating Graeme Smith’s side from the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa last summer, followed that up by beating them 2-1 in the ODI series, and more recently torpedoed them twice in T20 combat in the Caribbean – first in a warm-up affair and then in the Super Eights phase of the ICC World Twenty20.
Paul Collingwood’s sharp, well-toned and noticeably confident side are semi-finalists against Sri Lanka and tipped by most pundits to advance to Sunday’s final in Bridgetown too.
The report opines that South Africa have, rightly or wrongly, shown huge faith in several players to carry the flag across all formats, and also a willingness to field T20 sides dangerously close to an average age of 30.
In certain respects it is a tribute to the proven (often very proven indeed) versatility of some senior South African players, yet it is also difficult not to wonder whether a stronger infusion of youth ought to be a key objective henceforth for the Proteas in the fast-evolving T20 landscape. (ANI)