South Africa Test Squad for Australia

South Africa have announced their 15 member squad for the test leg of the tour of Australia.
Bowling all-rounder Rory Cleinveldt who played a couple of T-20Is for SA without much success has been picked as seam bowling backup to Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel. Marchent De Lange couldn't be picked as he's recovering from injury and Lonwabo Tsotsobe is dropped. There are 2 spinners, Imran Tahir and Robin Petersen.
Thami Tsolekile is picked, what role he would play, whether as regular wicket keeper or as backup to AB de Villiers will be decided by the tour selectors and team management. AB's recent injuries might play a role in the direction that decision would go.
Squad

Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Jacques Kallis, Rory Kleinveldt, Morne Morkel, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Jacques Rudolph, Dale Steyn, Thami Tsolekile

Perhaps SA should have picked one of Kuhn and Vilas for the wicket keeping role as it is unlikely that de Villiers could cary on doing the job for long? If AB isn't keeping, then Solekile at 7 would mean that the lineup would lack depth in batting. That might also mean that Jacques Rudolph will have to sit out.

I can't see the use of Tsolikile, it is a waste not to have one of the younger keepers go, what are they going to do?

Give Tsolekile 2 yrs of international cricket?

To be fair keepers can carry on a bit longer, so Tsolekile could still have 4 or so years left. If they see him as the best option now, then even 2 years is fair enough IMO. I'm always one for picking the best XI rather than blooding youngsters.

Surprised to see Tsotsobe dropped entirely, he doesn't seem to have done that much wrong? Is there an issue there we don't know about?

Hard luck for Tsotsobe. Cleinveldt can bat a bit, and if Solekile is keeping, then if they decide to go for a 4 man pace attack he could come in at 8. Perhaps Robin Petersen also will get a couple of games. Tahir hasn't been a world beater yet, so I would say fair enough if Kirsten and Smith go for Petersen, particularly if AB isn't keeping.

I'd expect AB to keep if he's fit - I'd rather he didn't if they had Vilas or Kuhn in the squad, but Tsolekile just seems very average to me. Obviously if AB can't keep because of injury then I'd expect Duminy to edge out Rudolph, and Tsolekile would have to play.

Very strange treatment of Tsotsobe. He's had a lot of limited overs success and was a bit unlucky to be left out of the Test team - Philander came in primarily because he batted better, but has obviously more than cemented a bowling place since. Kleinveldt's stats are pretty decent though - they'll be hoping they've found another Philander.

I'd expect they'll start with Tahir but Peterson is always putting pressure on him.

I'm with Mike on this: you pick your best XI, regardless of age. Never quite understood the point in picking youth just for the sake of it. However, I'm not really convinced by Tsolekile, unless he's improved massively from a few years ago when I last saw him play.

I'm not sure De Villiers should be keeping in tests at the moment, for me he's not good enough, and it's asking really a lot to captain, keep and bat top 5...

I am not convinced if Tsolekile is in it is the best XI

Its not like Kuhn or Vilas are youngsters... but they are both somewhat younger and considerably better batsmen statistically than Tsolekile.

I can't judge them definitively as I'm only basing my view on stats, having seen little to nothing of any of them playing. But the case for Tsolekile is statistically very weak.

They are three years younger than Tsolekile mate.

You get one of them in they can have a 5 year stint.

Biltong wrote:They are three years younger than Tsolekile mate.

You get one of them in they can have a 5 year stint.

Yep. At least five years. Vilas is 27 and so if he was successful he'd have about 10 years.

Can you (or any of the other SA posters) explain why SA like Tsolekile?

I don't want to go there mate.

Biltong wrote:I don't want to go there mate.

I get the message. Was under the impression that that type of thing had been phased out though. Perhaps not.

Biltong wrote:I don't want to go there mate.

Hmmmm, there were talks when he was selected for that long ago India tour. His performance in front and behind the stumps did nothing to stop the talkers.
His current stats too, are not suggestive of a massive improvement. I just hope ABDV is not called upon to taken too much responsibilities that his body can't take. He is too important a batsman for all that. Can understand it a bit when he does the job in ODIs, and could even understand when they had to make a dificult choice in England, but this, I am really not sure is a good idea. Think it will be a make or break series for Tsolekile, he fails, and then he should be out, and Kuhn, Vilas or even de Kock should be picked.

Don't have a huge problem with his age but sorry, he is not good enough.

We all know its politics, the sad truth is that Tsolekile is not good enough and fully expect that CSA will have him keeping come the Aussie test matches.

Overall, looking forward to this series, the pace attack from Australia look imposing and can cause major damage. My concerns for SA is the the lack of depth to our pace attack, injury to either Steyn, Morkel and big Vern can expose our lack of depth. Also our batting can be frail at times and can collapse unexpectedly.

This tour will answer allot of questions about both teams.

Intriguing test cricket awaits.