Four issues for Ottis Gibson after the stroll against Zim

The Proteas completed a pretty comfortable 5-0 clean sweep (one match abandoned) over the two limited overs formats against Zimbabwe.

In terms of re-establishing veterans such as Dale Steyn and Imran Tahir, the short tour was undoubtedly a success, but there were hitches when it came to examining the depth available to coach Ottis Gibson.

Here are five issues he touched on at the conclusion of the two series at the weekend.

Smaller venues, dodgy pitches

It’s early season and you don’t want to be too harsh on groundsmen but from the players’ point of view the pitches were disappointing. While we’re trying to create opportunities for others, we still need decent facilities and conditions. In a place like Kimberley, where you probably only have one major game per year, you get one chance to get it right and they probably didn’t.

It’s always been a good facility. I made 280 without loss there last year. You can have some challenges in winter. It happens. The wicket in Bloemfontein actually looked good but, you know, it always looks good until you play on it.

Hashim Amla isn’t going to Australia next month

Hashim is still injured. He’s out of that series already and as a selection group we’ve discussed that already with him. We’re going to give him as much time as possible to get himself ready for the next set of cricket after that tour. He won’t be considered until then.

The task of replacing him is difficult when you used five different opening combinations

Look, we know Hashim and Quinton de Kock are our established and fantastic opening pair. We also know Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram have been very good in franchise cricket in those roles. We wanted to see how both would do. Also, one of them were opening and the other batted at three. So we needed to change it up and see how it goes. The wicket’s were a bit tough for batting so from that point of view we didn’t get to see as much as we wanted to.

Chris Morris might be back on the radar

His recent form is very good for us and very good for him. As I’ve said before, it’s never been much about his cricket. I don’t think he’s ever been dropped since I’ve been here, he’s only been injured. I don’t think we’ve ever left him out for any over reason. We know what he can do when he’s fit, like he’s doing now. He’s in the picture.

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