Cricket World Cup: One week until Proteas squad announcement

Cricket South Africa have set the date for the revelation of the Proteas Cricket World Cup squad as Thursday 18 April.

Of the ten teams competing in the quadrennial showpiece only the Black Caps have announced their 15-man squad. All teams have until 23 April to announce their sides, and can continue making adjustments until 23 May for eventualities such as injury to players.

The Proteas squad will not be subject to transformation targets nor will the match XIs throughout the tournament.

Coach Ottis Gibson, Chief Selector Linda Zondi and skipper Faf du Plessis will be charged with assembling a 15-man group that should largely be decided.

Most of the discussion around the squad centres around batting spots in the group. Prior to the start of the season Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla would be dead certainties to be in the group, but both are in question, while there is no doubt that Gibson and company will find room for Rassie van der Dussen after a breakthrough season for the Lions top order man.

Reeza Hendricks and Dwaine Pretorius put their hands up during the T20I series against Sri Lanka, the final internationals before the squad announcement, and could factor in.

If the Proteas were allowed an 18-man group he would have almost certainly submitted the squad already but the 15 player limit will have given selectors a few headaches.

The move to have David Miller keep wicket in T20Is was expressly employed in order to negate the need to pick a specialist back-up keeper to Quinton de Kock. That means that Heinrich Klaasen will likely miss out on the group.

The Proteas will probably only have space for one of Pretorius, Chris Morris and Wiaan Mulder, with Andile Phehlukwayo nailing down the number one allrounder slot.

India will reveal their squad on 15 April and their bitter rivals Pakistan will drop theirs on the same day as the Proteas, 18 April.

Afghanistan announced a 23-member preliminary squad that is currently training in South Africa. They will play six practice matches here, before their final squad is announced.

Bangladesh selector Habibul Bashar recently said that they hoped to announce a squad somewhere between 15 and 20 April, after the conclusion of a 50-over domestic tournament.

Hosts England will reveal their squad next Wednesday 17 April while Australia will announce their squad on 15 April.

Sri Lanka and the West Indies have not revealed the date for their squad announcements.

Tags: Cricket World Cup 2019Proteas

LINK:	https://www.thesouthafrican.com/cricket-world-cup-one-week-until-prote...
	See more stories from thesouthafrican

Most recent headlines