Polly: Embattled Proteas need a new game-plan for England
And the Proteas legend and former captain believes it starts with preparing proper pitches...
Faf du Plessis of the Proteas and Shaun Pollock speak about the pitch during day 1 of the 1st Test match between South Africa and Sri Lanka at Kingsmead Stadium on February 13, 2019 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
Cricket South Africa are feverishly celebrating the Mzansi Super League at the moment but England arrive in less than a month for their Test series and that is going to make the Proteas wake up and smell the coffee very quickly.
But former captain Shaun Pollock believes there are some things the beleaguered national team can do to give themselves a chance against the third-ranked Test team.
Pollock said the Proteas need to take on England on good batting pitches and they need to focus on their own strengths and doing the basics well.
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“In the last couple of years we’ve seen some iffy surfaces here and the plan definitely needs to be for good surfaces.
“The Proteas need to plan around the strength of their team, and Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi are our strength. With no AB de Villiers nor Hashim Amla, the batting is very inexperienced and you need to give the weaker part of your team the opportunity to perform.
An upcoming Proteas batter like Theunis de Bruyn could do with better pitches to bat on. (Photo by Isuru Sameera Peris/Gallo Images)
“Good surfaces that don’t do too much will allow the batsmen to build confidence to survive. When I took over as captain, the public had also lost faith in the team but we at least had the same personnel and work-ethic.
“So we concentrated on our strengths – being the best fielding side, our work ethic, fitness and sticking to the game-plan we came up with as a team,” Pollock said at the Gary Player Invitational at Sun City, where he is one of the celebrity participants in the charity golf event.
“It’s about how the new team is up-skilling and they need help to step up in terms of good gameplans and picking wisely. Soon there’ll be a director of cricket, even though we don’t really know how that will work, but they need to be in the role quickly.” he said.
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