South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, Lungi Ngidi and David Miller are set to miss the ODI series in Sri Lanka next month.
De Kock is said to be rested for the ODIs, while Ngidi is out for what a press release released on Thursday cited as “personal reasons”. Miller, meanwhile, misses out due to a hamstring injury. This means South Africa will send out a weakened team to Sri Lanka. This also means that the missing players will have to put in extra work to be a part of the squad that takes part in the 2023 World Club.
High stakes
South Africa is in a little bit of a rut at the moment. They haven’t performed up to their usual standards at all. Even when they played with their strongest team against the Ireland, they lost one of the three games, while another one was washed out. As a result, their World Cup qualification campaign is at stake.
They sit in 10th place at the time of writing. The top seven sides in March 2023 will qualify, along with hosts India. That means South Africa have work to do, and they can’t afford to throw away any qualification points, including any in Sri Lanka. Their last tour was successful results-wise, but the playstyle left a lot to be desires. The sharp fast bowling, solid batting and exceptional fielding is the hallmark of South African cricket, and they will look to return to those basics as quickly as possible.
They travel to Sri Lanka to play three ODIs and three T20Is. The ODIs will be played on September 2, 4 and 7. The T20Is, meanwhile, will be played on September 10, 12 and 14. All matches will be played at R. Premadasa stadium in the capital city of Colombo.
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