Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
What is it about South African selectors of late and their insistance that opening isn't a specialist position? In this Test, we're told, Neil McKenzie (a middle-order batsmen who's never had any pretensions whatsoever as an opener) is going to open the batting, with AB de Villiers (an opener who's never had any pretensions as a middle-order batsman) batting at six.
This is merely the latest in a baffling trend. Since 2001\02, these batsmen have opened in Tests for South Africa:
Gary Kirsten
Herschelle Gibbs
Graeme Smith
Boeta Dippenaar
Martin van Jaarsveld
Andrew Hall
AB de Villiers
Jacques Rudolph
And now McKenzie
Every single one of these has also batted in the middle-order. Every. Single. One. Now, van Jaarsveld can be counted-out as he only did it once in an emergency... except for the fact that a specialist opener, Rudolph, was already in the side and batted three in that match.
Specialist openers like Rudolph, Dippenaar and de Villiers have been forced to bat in the middle-order for countless matches. While people like Hall (and now McKenzie), who's never had any pretensions whatsoever as an opener, have been pushed up to open. Insane.
The only remotely decent arrangement they came to was when they had Smith and de Villiers opening and Gibbs at three. Even that was abandoned as they insisted on having Hashim Amla (someone with a terrible technique much best suited to being kept away from the new-ball) at three.
Why can South Africa not pick openers to open, middle-order batsmen to bat in the middle-order, and instead of thinking "he's too good to sit on the bench" when an opener has 2 or 3 bad Tests, either persist with him or drop him?
Is it any coincidence that the only consistent batsman South Africa have had in the last 6 years is Jacques Kallis, who's never batted anywhere other than four?
This is merely the latest in a baffling trend. Since 2001\02, these batsmen have opened in Tests for South Africa:
Gary Kirsten
Herschelle Gibbs
Graeme Smith
Boeta Dippenaar
Martin van Jaarsveld
Andrew Hall
AB de Villiers
Jacques Rudolph
And now McKenzie
Every single one of these has also batted in the middle-order. Every. Single. One. Now, van Jaarsveld can be counted-out as he only did it once in an emergency... except for the fact that a specialist opener, Rudolph, was already in the side and batted three in that match.
Specialist openers like Rudolph, Dippenaar and de Villiers have been forced to bat in the middle-order for countless matches. While people like Hall (and now McKenzie), who's never had any pretensions whatsoever as an opener, have been pushed up to open. Insane.
The only remotely decent arrangement they came to was when they had Smith and de Villiers opening and Gibbs at three. Even that was abandoned as they insisted on having Hashim Amla (someone with a terrible technique much best suited to being kept away from the new-ball) at three.
Why can South Africa not pick openers to open, middle-order batsmen to bat in the middle-order, and instead of thinking "he's too good to sit on the bench" when an opener has 2 or 3 bad Tests, either persist with him or drop him?
Is it any coincidence that the only consistent batsman South Africa have had in the last 6 years is Jacques Kallis, who's never batted anywhere other than four?