Proteas coach, Ottis Gibson during the South African national men's cricket team training session and press conference at PPC Newlands on March 18, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
While the 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the T20 series was pleasing in itself, Proteas coach Ottis Gibson said it was especially valuable because it enabled them to familiarise players with situations they could find themselves in during the World Cup in England in mid-year.
“All through both the limited-overs series we moved people up and down the order, which paid off and we now have more answers to our questions. For instance we gave Dwaine Pretorius an opportunity with the bat in the last game because we’ve never really seen his potential. We wanted to put people in positions they might find themselves in in 50-over cricket.
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“We’ve been practising our game-plans in situations we think will come up in the World Cup, trying different bowling attacks, including playing two spinners, and moving batsmen up and down the order. There’s a lot of variation in how we can set up the team because I don’t think you can play the same XI in every match in England and win the World Cup,” Gibson said after the Proteas’ last home game of the season.
As far as the World Cup squad goes, Gibson said the picture is actually pretty stable, despite all the furious speculation going on amongst the public.
“I’ve had my 15 for a while, now I sit with my fingers crossed, praying that nobody picks up anything too serious. The selection process for the squad is 99.9% complete. Everyone is in such good form at the moment, the confidence is high and there’s a great team spirit. Now the players go off and I’ve just told them to understand the big picture.
“The pre-tournament camp will be from May 12 and I hope there are no niggles because we don’t want to take injured players to the World Cup. JP Duminy has got back on the field, his shoulder is improving and his form just carried on from Sri Lanka, he’s batted very well, which is what we wanted. Hashim Amla is also still very much part of the plans, he’s nursing his very sick father and we won’t know more until that changes,” Gibson said.
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