South African team management hopeful of fielding a full-strength squad against the Aussies

After suffering a humiliating series loss against India in the limited-overs arena, South Africa is all set to take on mighty Australians on their home soil. South Africa team management believes that the core players will be back in the mix for the Test series as they expect close to full strength squad for the first Test in Durban on March 1. The pillars of South African cricket have all been waylaid by injuries, but Cricket South Africa’s is committee are confident that they will recover in time.

Earlier, the injury concerns had already sidelined Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Vernon Philander and Quinton de Kock against the Men in Blue which eventually showed the actual gulf between two sides. With another top-class team touring, they will expect to play to their strengths and not let the opposition dominate. Of the four, the skipper’s injury is the most concerning one. The right-handed batsman fractured his right index finger in the first One-Day International against India at the start of this month, and the prognosis was that he would need at least three to six weeks to recover.

Dr Shuaib Manjra, the head of the medical committee said that de Villiers is expected to get fit for the upcoming series. He further mentioned that the remaining three are also recovering well from their injury and are expected to take the field on March 1. Dr Manjra believes that the speedster Dale Steyn is also doing well but needs to play at least one game in the domestic arena before getting into the mix again.

Proteas eyeing for a full-strength squad

“AB will be fit for the Australia series. We rested him from the T20s so that he would be ready for the Tests. He got hit in the knee with a ball and his finger was a bit finicky so we decided to allow him to recover correctly. Faf is on his way to recovery and should be ready for the first Test. Quinton de Kock will also be ready as we see it, and Vernon Philander is coming along nicely as well. We see all four of them coming back for the first Australia Test,” Manjra was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

“He’s ahead of his rehab at the moment,” said Dr Manjra talking about Steyn. “He’s been running comfortably without pain, but he’ll probably need a couple more weeks before he’s there. We would want Dale to play at least one, preferably two (Sunfoil Series) games before he comes back for the national team.”

It will be interesting to see whether the Proteas can give Australians who are riding high on confidence after their Ashes win a tough time.