Hashim Amla still part of South Africa’s World Cup plans, says coach Ottis Gibson

Hashim Amla has put the South African cricketing brains in a spot. While the man’s current form has failed to inspire them, his truckload of experience also makes them unsure whether to get rid of him completely. The 35-year-old was recently dropped from the Proteas’ limited-over squads for the series against Sri Lanka partially after he had an ordinary Test series. But it has been learnt now that the man is very much in consideration for the World Cup.

Amla is one of most prolific scorers South Africa has produced with over 18,000 international runs. However, he has also remained sidelined from cricket for nearly a month now because of his father’s critical illness. The batsman was scheduled to play the last two ODIs against the Lankans after getting ignored for the first three but he could not because of his family reasons.

Although Amla’s colleagues and the country’s cricket administrators backed him at a time when he is facing challenges on the family front, his recent form has kept the selectors wary. The rise of the young players like Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks has put Hashim Amla under more competition. “He’s still very much part of the plans,” South Africa Ottis Gibson said about Amla.

Both Markram and Hendricks have been in decent nick and that makes Amla’s chances of making the WC squad all the more challenging. There are chances of only two of the three making the cut and between now and April 18 when the squad is set to be announced, the veteran opening batsman will not have enough games to display his form. Amla was ruled out of Wednesday’s Momentum One Day Cup semi-final game against the Titans at Centurion.

Giving Amla time to be with his family

However, Gibson understood the situation and felt that it is very important for Amla to be with his family at the moment. “When it comes to family, then family takes precedence over everything else. We have to just give him the time he needs to be with his family and then we will try and make a decision sometime after that,” he was quoted as saying by Sport24.

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