South Africa will go into the second Test with Temba Bavuma and Gerald Coetzee unavailable due to injuries. Here is a look at how they can potentially shuffle their XI for the New Year’s Test in Cape Town.
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South Africa captain Temba Bavuma injured his hamstring while chasing a ball on the first morning of the Centurion Test match, leading to his absence from the rest of the Test match as well as from the series. Coetzee, playing just his third Test, suffered from an inflammation of the pelvis while bowling on the third day of the first Test, ruling him out of the second. South Africa are narrow favourites with Betway to win the second Test, but they will need to get their team combination just right to do so.
South Africa have not named any replacements for either Bavuma or Coetzee in the squad, meaning they’ll have to choose an XI from the 14 available players. Here are the various combinations that South Africa can potentially try out.
Like-for-like replacements for Coetzee and Bavuma
South Africa went in with an all-seam attack in Centurion and preferred extra batting depth, with Marco Jansen originally supposed to come in at No.8 before Bavuma got injured. The easiest way out for them would be to stick to the winning combination and play one of Tristan Stubbs or Zubayr Hamza in place of Bavuma and Lungi Ngidi in place of Coetzee.
Ngidi was ruled out of the first Test match after failing to recover from the injury he was carrying, but is all set to be available and to replace Coetzee in Cape Town.
Predicted XI: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Tristan Stubbs/Zubayr Hamza, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi
Lungi Ngidi for Coetzee; Keshav Maharaj for Bavuma
Keshav Maharaj, South Africa’s premier spinner, missed out in the first Test due to the conditions being overly seam-friendly. According to sources, however, he is expected to play in Cape Town. Given the strong showing by the South African batting line up, they can afford to play Maharaj in place of Bavuma while pushing Jansen to No.7 (where he batted and scored 84 not out in Centurion), while Ngidi can replace Coetzee.
Predicted XI: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi
Extra seam-bowling option in Wiaan Mulder
South Africa can also consider strengthening their seam-bowling attack further by playing all-rounder Wiaan Mulder in place of Bavuma, while Ngidi can replace Coetzee. Mulder can slot in at No.7, lending balance to the South African side given his skills with both bat and ball.
Predicted XI: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi
Batting depth plus one seamer short
In the unlikely event that Ngidi is still unavailable to play in Cape Town, and the conditions look conducive to spin (which is generally not the case at this venue), South Africa can play a specialist batter for Bavuma and Maharaj for Coetzee, adding both batting depth and a world class spinner to their side.
Predicted XI: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Tristan Stubbs/Zubayr Hamza, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger
