JP Duminy faces the axe after twin failures at Lord’s

JP Duminy has been released from the squad midway during the 4-Test series in England. He was dropped for the second Test at Trent Bridge following his twin failures in the Lord’s Test which South Africa lost by a margin of 211 runs. Duminy could muster to just 17 runs in two innings following which he was omitted for the next game.

Reasonable come back last year

Duminy has been in and out of the Test side for many years now. He made a reasonable comeback last year when he notched up his 5th Test hundred against Australia at Perth which led the Proteas to a big win of 177 runs. He smashed another hundred two months later when he made 155 against a visiting Sri Lanka side at Johannesburg. By virtue of his consistency, Duminy sealed his position at the No. 4 spot in the absence of AB de Villiers.

But Duminy’s form struggled in Test cricket post his century against Sri Lanka in January. He failed to record a single score of fifty plus in the next eight innings. In these innings, the southpaw could manage to score just 121 runs at 17.29 with a highest score of 39. Aged 33, the South African selectors didn’t want to invest too much time on Duminy and dropped him from the Test side with the series hanging at 1-1.

Duminy, a limited overs specialist

Duminy has been a stellar performer for South Africa in limited overs cricket but could never replicate that success in the longer form of the game. In a Test career spanning 9 years, Duminy played in just 46 Tests making 2103 runs at 32.83. In contrast, his ODI tally is very impressive – 4638 at 37.70 from 177 games. The middle order batsman has an equally remarkable record in T20s making 1683 runs at 38.25 including 9 half centuries.

With time not in hand, this might be the end of Duminy’s Test career. He will continue to excel in colored clothing for South Africa at least till the 2019 World Cup in England.