Analysis of the South African 15 members squad for the World Cup 2015

Analysis of the South African 15 members squad for the World Cup 2015: South Africa has named their 15 man squad for the ICC cricket World Cup 2015. Team captained by the mercurial AB de Villiers has no major surprises as most of the players picked themselves however, showing faith in injured De Kock and selection of Phaniaso over Robin Peterson and Ryan McLaren have raised some eyebrows.

Batting
The squad looks good enough to win the World Cup as they possess nice blend of youth and experience. They are led by a very capable leader AB de Villiers who is in demolishing form with the bat and is probably the best batsman in the world right now. The burden of batting will mostly rests on AB and Hashim Amla’s shoulder. Amla has been a prolific run getter for the Proteas in the last 2-3 years and team will bank on him to provide good start. Besides Amla and AB de Villiers the players like Faf Du Plessis, JP Duminy, David Miller are all match winners on their day. Farhan Behardien will provide a calming influence to team and overall this looks a very dangerous batting team.

Fitness of Quinton De Kock will be in question as he is expected to be fit only after the first two matches; Rillie Rossouw the RCB southpaw would get a chance in playing 11 till De Kock gets 100% fit.

Bowling
Steyn’s pace, Morkel’s bounce and Philander’s swing makes South African the best pace bowling unit of the World Cup 2015 however there are some concerns about their spin bowling as Imran Tahir hasn’t been in terrific form off late but if he manages to replicate the World Cup performance of 2011 in 2015 then South Africa will become a force to reckon with and it will be mighty tough to defeat them for any team.

Proteas have Wayne Parnell and Kyle Abbott as their back up pacers and Aaran Phangiso as back up spin bowler, selection of left arm spinner Phangiso over Robin Peterson has raised some eyebrows.

The USP of South Africa over the years has been there seaming bowling all-rounder’s. This nation has produced some serious all-rounder like Kallis, Klusener and Pollock but strangely they haven’t got one in their 15 member squad this time as neither Parnell nor Philander can be considered a genuine all-rounder. They have found it tough to replace Kallis ever since he has retired from international cricket, they relied on Albie Morkel and Ryan Mclaren to replace Kallis but both haven’t lived up to their expectations and as a result of it Africans don’t have a genuine seam bowler who can bat reliably as well going into the World Cup 2015. This is an area which will surely concern them.

South Africa are a world-class bowling team, excellent batting unit and an amazing fielding side so they tick all boxes but the only question mark that every connoisseur has about them is how they are going to handle the pressure in the crucial stages of the tournament, This will be a decisive factor in their quest to their maiden ICC Cricket World Cup title.

The South Africa 15 member Squad for the ICC cricket world cup 2015: AB de Villiers (C), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw and Dale Steyn.