Proteas focus on test championship

Cricket South Africa has named an experimental white-ball squad to face neighbours and 2027 Cricket World Cup co-hosts, Namibia and Zimbabwe, in a T20 International Tri-series.

Spinner Bjorn Fortuin will captain the 15-player squad for the series which starts on the 28th of this month at the Namibia Cricket Ground in Windhoek.

And according to coach Shukri Conrad, the selection is based on player management and the fact that the Proteas priority for the summer is earning more World Test Championship points.

South Africa are the reigning World Test Champions. They defeated Australia in the final at Lord’s in London last June to bag the Test Mace, bringing home the country’s first major ICC silverware at senior level.

Conrad and his charges are determined to successfully defend that title.

And to make sure that their first-choice Proteas are fit and fresh for the tests later this year, some youngsters will be given opportunities in white ball cricket.

“One needs to take everything into account when you look at a tour like this the big summer that we have got plays a part whenever we have an opportunity to do both expose a few of our younger players and give some of the older guys a bit of a break because of what the summer entails I think this is the ideal opportunity to build some international caps amongst our younger players while we are also keeping an eye on what the summer looks like for some of our senior guys,” says Conrad.

The Proteas have won three out of the four Test matches played late last year against Pakistan and India and are currently second place in the World Test Championship standings, behind the Aussies.

Winning the three match Test series against Australia at home is one of the main goals of the summer.

“Our big mission is the ODI series against Australia but more importantly the test series against Australia and as we build the summer the test series is all the tests are the priority and we need to make sure that not only Temba but all of our players are primed for that,” Conrad explains.

South Africa will play three One Day Internationals and three Test matches against the Australians. The first test will be played at Kingsmead in Durban and starts on October the ninth.

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