Five things to know about the South Africa team ahead of cricket’s World Twenty20 in Bangladesh
Unwanted reputation
Chokers. It is the word that always hangs over South Africa’s regularly shaky campaigns in major limited-overs tournaments.
Ever since South Africa failed when needing just one run off the last four balls in the World Cup semi-finals against Australia in 1999, it has been a litany of near-misses and gut-wrenching late failures. The South Africans have made the semi-finals of the World Cup, Champions Trophy or World Twenty20 nine times since 1992 and have just one final and one title to show for it – a long-forgotten triumph in the Champions Trophy in 1998.
New era
Although they played little part in South Africa’s T20 squad over the past few years, Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis have finally ended their careers.
Smith retired from all internationals this month and Kallis is now only occasionally available for 50-over games, forcing the Proteas to enter a new era.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock, middle-order power hitter David Miller and left-arm quick Beuran Hendricks are part of the new T20 order under captain Faf du Plessis and coach Russell Domingo.
Short form concerns
This month’s series defeat to Australia aside, South Africa has been settled as the best Test team in the world for two years.
But the transfer of talent to the limited-overs formats has been tricky and South Africa has been nowhere near as successful in the short formats.
Batsmen AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, and fast bowler Dale Steyn, have not been able to shine the way they do in Tests and South Africa are not quite sure why.
Problematic preparations
South Africa have not had a fun start to 2014: A reduced India series left the country with no international cricket through January.
Then there was the ICC restructure affair, a damaging few weeks for South African cricket’s administrators. The past month has had the 2-1 Test series loss to Australia on home soil, South Africa’s first defeat in a series in five years.
A couple of T20 games against Australia that ended in a series’ loss, has been the Proteas’ only 20-over cricket this year and might not provide the new-look squad with the preparation it needs for Bangladesh.
Young prospects
Not the youngsters in the senior squad, but the youngsters in the under-19 team. South Africa’s juniors returned home as world champions at the beginning of March after the tournament in the UAE, the country’s first ICC trophy at any level since that Champions Trophy title in 1998.
South Africa, with their limited-overs struggles, will gladly take the youth team’s success as a sign that better times might be ahead.
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