South Africa Watch

Amla is still easily one of their best batters. He's on par with ABD in my opinion still, although I will conceded that he has indeed regressed with his run scoring slightly.

Of the black cricketers who have been selected this summer, I have been very impressed with all of them. The only questionable selection was Andile in the test against India. In a side who bolstered a real battery of pace in Morkel, Morris, Rabada and Ngidi, he looked out of place and it showed. As it stands, he is certainly not there yet as a test cricketer.

Zonda, Klassen and Junior Dala have all impressed me when they've put on the green. In fact, Zonda was a refrehsing surprise as I seriously thought he was a quoate player but, as it stands, I'm impressed. He's without a doubt a better batter than Bavuma as he appears to have more shots. Also has a lot of time so certainly somebody to keep an eye on.

Somebody who I think could have slotted in well would be Rilee Rousaw. I know Abbot was a big loss at the time but the bowling stocks are now full of talent....the batting is another story. The talent is there but SA simply are not firing at the moment, so somebody like RS could have been a great option. Only now he has left does his talent appear a waste.

Muelder is certaainly an eye catching talent and I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his test debut in this series.

Muelder

De Bruyn

Ngidi

Markram

Rabada

Andile (Limited overs)

Klassen

Zubayr Hamza

Olivier

I think Amla is suffering from the effect of father time, he may have just lost a bit in his reaction time to quality quicks. He might be able to play on longer if he moves down the order, the only issue is who bats 3 if Amla goes down? With ABDV, Faf, Bavuma etc all fighting for spots.

For me De Bruyn is the future 3

This is going to be a really spicy game.

Warner is going to get some serious s**t out there, and from the fans.

Rabada banned for two test matches. Serves him right. You can't go round screaming in batters faces and shoulder barging opposition players. He needs to cool it down massively if he is going to survive international cricket. He's such a good bowler it's scary, but this fiery temper is what will let him down ultimately.

Lungi Ngidi I've been very impressed with, both with his ability with ball in hand but also with his attitude and approach to the opposition. That stairwell incident was a good example. When Rabada was looking to get involved, Ngidi was passive, holding towels for De Kock and Markram.

Who do we reckon will come in for Rabada? You'd like to think that Morne Morkel will have first refusal, but the way they dropped him for this test match nothing would really suprise me.

I can't see anything wrong with the punishments handed out, Rabada has form in this area and you can't let people get away with that s**t on the field otherwise things will get out of control.

With the Proteas getting their arses handed to them over in India it’s probably a good time to have another look at this thread. A lot of what I said in my first post has been pretty accurate, the player drain has continued and has started to take its toll on results big time.

Honestly Zimbabwe wouldn’t do much worse than what South Africa are dishing up in India, in fact I reckon they’d do better. This South African side has folded like a deck of cards, seriously lacking leadership out there.

Imagine how bad it will be in 10 years time ?

Players who need to be being looked at, in my opinion, can be found below.

Future batters of South African Cricket:

. Aiden Markram - Obviously been bedded in nicely, but has to be stuck with. His ODI stats are dreadful but he'll get there. So talented, stupidly in fact.

. Zubayr Hamza

. Raynard Van Tonder

. Kyle Verreynne

. Jannamen Malan

. Matthew Breetzke

. Bryce Parsons (Simply remember this kids name).

. Andrew Louw

I’d be very confident in saying both England & Australia would have done much better than what South Africa have done, that 2nd Test pitch wasn’t a dust bowl, in fact all the pitches have been fair. They just don’t have a good side atm and will only win Tests at home where their fast bowling unit can rip a team apart for a low score, even then their batting is a worry and will likely fall to pieces as well.

They’ve lost their last 5 tests two of which were at home to Sri Lanka

They're missing their 'banker' in the middle order, all good sides at least one or two. It's no surprise that NZ have shot up the rankings on the back of Williamson, Ross Taylor and even Nicholls now can be counted on for runs, India obviously have Virat & Pujara and Australia have Smith (who almost counts as two players he's that good).

It's no surprise England have struggled of late as Root has declined whilst the other nations all rely on different guys putting their hands up to do the job from innings to innings. Looking at South Africa they had three bankers in their side with Amla, Kallis & AB all in the one side, but Kallis retired then AB and now Amla so they're left with Faf, who to be honest isn't in the same calibre and can't be relied on for runs when the rest fail.

Faf is a great player and a really good leader (although in this series he's been average in both areas) but the side needs that one guy at least, who can average 55-60 in Tests. Looking at their side they have a pretty good opening partnership in Markram & Elgar despite the recent dip in form for Aiden, in comparison to the other opening partnerships around the world I'd say that's a good one. But their middle order is pathetic, they haven't been able to replace Kallis, Hash or AB at all, De Bruyn looks a decent player but he can't make runs, Bavuma is a quota player and Hamza is still unproven.

They have a lot of the key ingredients to a good side, as I said they have a good opening partnership, a good captain and a really good pace attack, but they're lacking that banker in the middle order and some leadership.

Sad state for SA, but hope they build from here with the inexperienced squad getting the exposure from here on. Only Maharaj looked like he belonged in the league (even with the bat), toiling away despite the toss disadvantage for him, and Rabada and Elgar looked good in patches. Batting a massive letdown.

Mate look at his record he was class

Find it funny how you under rate good players like Root & Amla yet you’ll put Mushy up with Kohli etc

Well they really seem to be at the cross roads with a mass player overhaul seemingly very near, Morkel has already announced he's done whilst Steyn keeps breaking down, Amla isn't up to batting @3 anymore, ABDV will probably quit after the WC and Duminy has already retired from tests.

The Quota system is definitely taking effect with 4 Black guys playing tests this summer whilst Zondo & Dala also played the limited overs matches, the drain of quality white players to County cricket has hurt their depth though and if we are to see Amla, ABDV, Steyn, Morkel, Duminy and maybe Philander disappear by 2019 what will the side look like and will they be competitive ???

Markram has emerged and will likely captain the side after the World Cup and De Bruyn looks to be the future No.3 despite little product so far in tests. Bavuma will likely come back into the side also but the fact the selectors disregarded the Quota target and picked De Bruyn ahead of shows they don't really think he's up to it.

Klassen showed he is a good player so we might see QDK give up the gloves at play as a specialist batsman whilst Wiaan Mulder is the allrounder they've been crying out for since Kallis retired. CSA desperately need Elgar & Faf to hang around around after the Wc if those above mentioned players do retire to try and guide these youngsters as they find their feet in Test cricket.

Markram c

Elgar

De Bruyn

Bavuma

De Plessis

De Kock wk

Mulder / Klassen

Philander / Phehlukawayo

Rabada

Maharaj

Ngidi / Oliver

Amla is still easily one of their best batters. He's on par with ABD in my opinion still, although I will conceded that he has indeed regressed with his run scoring slightly.

Of the black cricketers who have been selected this summer, I have been very impressed with all of them. The only questionable selection was Andile in the test against India. In a side who bolstered a real battery of pace in Morkel, Morris, Rabada and Ngidi, he looked out of place and it showed. As it stands, he is certainly not there yet as a test cricketer.

Zonda, Klassen and Junior Dala have all impressed me when they've put on the green. In fact, Zonda was a refrehsing surprise as I seriously thought he was a quoate player but, as it stands, I'm impressed. He's without a doubt a better batter than Bavuma as he appears to have more shots. Also has a lot of time so certainly somebody to keep an eye on.

Somebody who I think could have slotted in well would be Rilee Rousaw. I know Abbot was a big loss at the time but the bowling stocks are now full of talent....the batting is another story. The talent is there but SA simply are not firing at the moment, so somebody like RS could have been a great option. Only now he has left does his talent appear a waste.

Muelder is certaainly an eye catching talent and I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his test debut in this series.

Muelder

De Bruyn

Ngidi

Markram

Rabada

Andile (Limited overs)

Klassen

Zubayr Hamza

Olivier

I think Amla is suffering from the effect of father time, he may have just lost a bit in his reaction time to quality quicks. He might be able to play on longer if he moves down the order, the only issue is who bats 3 if Amla goes down? With ABDV, Faf, Bavuma etc all fighting for spots.

For me De Bruyn is the future 3

This is going to be a really spicy game.

Warner is going to get some serious s**t out there, and from the fans.