Proteas crystal clear about T20 plans

South Africa head into this afternoon’s third T20 International against India, comfortable that more chopping and changing over the remainder of the series will prove beneficial in three months’ time when they return to the sub-continent for the World Cup.

With the series locked at 1-1, ahead of the clash up in the Himalayan home of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, the Proteas don’t feel they need any spiritual guidance about how they want to play the rest of the series.

“We want to give everyone a good run, see what works and what doesn’t, but overall we’re pretty clear about what we want,” head coach Shukri Conrad said yesterday.

Corbin Bosch is the only player in the squad who didn’t feature in either of the opening two matches in the series — which is strange, given how well he performed in his last T20 match.

In that series decider last month in Pakistan, Bosch steered the second half of the Proteas innings from a tricky position of 76/6, when he arrived at the crease, to a competitive total of 139/9. He then took 2/24 in his four overs, not enough to prevent Pakistan from winning in the penultimate over, but nevertheless a reminder of the all-round value Bosch provides.

The absence of Kagiso Rabada, Tony de Zorzi and Kwena Maphaka through injury and the need to fulfill Cricket SA’s targets mandate has meant starts for Lutho Sipamla — who replaced Maphaka — in the first two matches.

Bosch is likely to get a run in place of Marco Jansen, with Conrad saying the Proteas need to carefully manage players who have had a busy schedule in the last few months.

Jansen has featured in all the matches in India. “There are guys who’ve been here since the Test series and we have the SA20 after this,” said Conrad.

Despite the absence of Test cricket on home soil, players like Bosch — who played all three ODIs and the first Test — Jansen, Aiden Markram and Keshav Maharaj have borne a heavy workload.

Markram, the captain of the T20 side, who also led the team in the first ODI and was unveiled as skipper of the Durban Super Giants for this season’s SA20, has also had to manage batting in different spots in the last ODI against India and in the first two T20Is. “He’s pretty flexible,” Conrad chirped.

Nevertheless, it is another example of how the Proteas are treating this series.

There will always be question marks about the right balance of the starting XI and the combinations South Africa will play, which won’t be the case for only this series but at the World Cup too.

Conrad felt comfortable enough to confirm Quinton de Kock, who made a match-winning 90 last Thursday, will “definitely” open. But who will accompany him will depend on conditions and the opposition.

Sometimes you come to a ground, where historically the scores are quite high, and you feel you need to be [aiming] at a certain mark and then find yourself in trouble

—  Shukri Conrad, Proteas head coach

“Aiden’s done a great job, he had a wonderful IPL last year when he opened the batting, and he’s batted at No 3 and 4 in previous World Cups,” said Conrad.

“Markram’s record as an opener and at No 4 are fairly similar, although No 3 hasn’t been quite as successful. He won’t bat lower than No 3. We’re quite open to where Aiden fits in.”

Dewald Brevis appears to have nailed down the No 4 position, and Conrad will want him to get comfortable there before the World Cup; while David Miller and Donovan Ferreira showed just how dangerous they can be by blasting 53 runs off 23 balls in the second match to round off the innings.

George Linde’s big hitting should put him ahead of Keshav Maharaj in the spin bowling role, but Linde’s also been infuriatingly inconsistent with ball and bat, and still needs to earn the trust of the selectors.

Dharamsala is traditionally a high-scoring venue — SA chased down 200 there in 2015 to beat India, but Conrad doesn’t want his side to have any preconceived thoughts about setting a big total if they bat first.

“Sometimes you come to a ground, where historically the scores are quite high, and you feel you need to be [aiming] at a certain mark and then find yourself in trouble,” he said.

“We don’t have a target in mind that we want to reach. We are confident in our all-round game,” he said.