South Africa cricket team is one of the favourites to win the ICC Champions Trophy. In the last 13 months, the Proteas have made the semifinals of the ODI World Cup and the final of the T20 World Cup. Right now, they are also in a prime position to qualify for the World Test Championship Final 2025. Amid all of the success, they have been handed a resounding defeat by Pakistan.
Having won the T20I series, South Africa was expected to breeze past Pakistan at home in ODIs as well. That didn’t happen. Having already lost the first ODI in a close manner and with the series on the line, the management decided to bench Tristian Stubbs, Kagiso Rabada, and Ottneil Baartman. With Keshav Maharaj already unavailable, the decision to rest them resulted in a series defeat.
Questions over team selection
In an exclusive chat with InspideSport, former South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision-making. Currently in India, playing in the Big Cricket League, Gibbs wasn’t pleased with the approach the management took by fielding a second-string team with the ICC Champions Trophy approaching.
“In a big game like that, you need to play your best team to stay in the series. If they lost, they were going to lose the series. It was perplexing and confusing. Why didn’t they put a stronger team in and try to save the series? There are going to be questions asked regarding the selection. You have to have some sort of pride; you can’t think a second-string team can beat a full-strength Pakistan side,” Gibbs said.
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Fielding & fitness standards down says Gibbs
Gibbs also came hard at the players for not prioritising their fitness. Coming from a team that had the likes of Jonty Rhodes, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Faf du Plessis, and Gibbs himself, South Africa’s effort in the 2nd ODI didn’t please him. As many as four catches were dropped as Pakistan went on to score 329 in the innings. In reply, Pakistan, who is considered to be a weaker fielding side, let go of just one chance, and that too after the 40th over.
“In the middle to late 90s, we were by far the best fielding team in the world and the fittest team. And it’s just sad to see that quite a few of the players let themselves go and are not really concerned with fitness. And it shows in the standard of our fielding. Last night, how many catches were dropped? These catches that are getting dropped every game, which wasn’t the case years ago. We took pride in our fitness, and it is a little bit side. And it’s quite evident to see, you know, who is actually unfit,” Gibbs told InsideSport in Surat.
Before the ODI series started, Gibbs had taken a shot at the Proteas for gaining a little bit of weight. He didn’t mention any specific players’ names, but just days ago, he had tweeted about players “eating well” with Cricket South Africa and posted a few images from practice.
“The pride in our performance and your fitness levels should be something that you, as a professional cricketer, are high on your priority list. It’s sad to see that those standards have dropped quite considerably. I don’t need to mention any names, but people can see who they are,” Gibbs concluded.
