SOUTH Africa will look to bounce back from the 2-1 series loss to Afghanistan in Sharjah last week as they take on Ireland in two T20Is and three ODIs starting this week in Abu Dhabi.
The Proteas will have a set of new faces in the T20 side, with Matthew Breetzke, Patrick Kruger and Ryan Rickelton joining the camp in the UAE, having not been part of the ODI team that lost to Afghanistan last week.
Captain Aiden Markram emphasised that since there are only two matches in the series, they are likely to give the new guys game time.
After the shocking ODI series loss to Afghanistan in Sharjah, Markram knows that Ireland are a quality team capable of beating any side in the world, and the South Africans will be wary of allowing another upset in the first T20 on Friday at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium (5.30pm start, SA time).
“It goes without saying that they’ve become a really good team in world cricket and are capable of beating any team in the world at the moment,” Markram told the media yesterday.
“The squads are pretty different. We’ve got some guys coming in and joining the T20 side that we’d like to see in the XI and playing.
“It’s only two games, so from an opportunity point of view, I’d like to think that we’d back the same batting unit for the two games.”
After the conclusion of the two-match T20 series, Markram will then fly back to South Africa and thus miss the three-match ODI series that gets under way next week in Abu Dhabi.
Markram told the media that the idea behind him missing the Ireland ODI series is so that he can properly prepare for the forthcoming Bangladesh series.
And looking at how the Proteas batter struggled in the spin-friendly conditions in Sharjah last week, the move is a good one because Bangladesh also tends to offer spin-friendly wickets.
“We’re looking at how much cricket there is lying ahead for us as the Proteas team. We have a really important Test series against Bangladesh coming up, so it’s basically to get home and start with the red-ball preparation moving into that series. That is the idea behind me missing out on that ODI series,” said Markram.
“It’s balancing time – trying to balance your preparation, especially for a place like Bangladesh, where conditions are really specific. It’s quite tough to keep bouncing from series to series without putting in that specific preparation.
“Fortunately, coach Rob (Walter) is good with managing that, and we’ve identified a time for me to go and prepare specifically for the Test series ahead in Bangladesh.”