South Africa vs England: 3 Proteas players to watch out for in the ODI series

South Africa are struggling badly in world cricket currently. They lost their first-ever Test series at home against an Asian side (Sri Lanka) last year, finished the World Cup 2019 at the seventh position in the points table, got thrashed in India, and now lost a Test series against England in their own backyard by 3-1.

After a heartbreaking loss in the longest format, they are set to face the World Champions – England for a three-match ODI series. This ODI segment will be South Africa’s first ODI series after the World Cup 2019.

In order to manage the workload, their permanent skipper Faf du Plessis along with Kagiso Rabada is rested for this ODI leg. Quinton de Kock who captained South Africa for the T20I series in India is given the same responsibility for this series as well. Lungi Ngidi is making his return to international cricket after suffering from a hamstring injury. South Africa have also included as many as five players who are yet to make their ODI debut in their squad – Lutho Sipamla, Kyle Verreynne, Sisanda Magala, Janneman Malan and Bjorn Fortuin.

The Proteas are trying to re-build their side with fresh faces and rightly so. In their previous series against England at home in 2016, the AB de Villiers-led side won the five-match ODI series by 3-2 after losing the first two matches. In their den, South Africa have lost just one out of four series against England. However, that is past and the Proteas will be competing against the No. 1 ODI side in the world, this time around.

In this article, we have featured three South African players to watch for in this series:

1. Janneman Malan

Since 2018, South Africa have serious opening woes in this format of the game. Ever since the form of Hashim Amla dipped, Faf and Co. couldn’t find a stable batting pair at the top of the batting order. Since 2018, they tried seven opening pairs and had an overall average of 35.50 in 37 innings. In this duration, the South African managed just one century stand – against Afghanistan in the World Cup 2019.

There were just nine instances when their opening pair added 50+ runs for the first wicket. Among the top ten ODI teams in ICC rankings, only Afghanistan and New Zealand have worse numbers than South Africa in this duration. Aiden Markram is suffering from an injury; thus, South Africa have called Reeza Hendricks back in their ODI set up. Janneman Malan who has been scoring runs in the domestic circuit is also selected in the squad and is a player to watch out for.

In South Africa’s domestic One-Day tournament – Momentum One-Day Cup 2018-19, playing for Cape Cobras, Malan finished the tourney as the fourth-highest run-scorer. The right-handed batsman continued his good form and was the second-highest run-getter in Mzansi Super League 2019-20.

Malan approaching 24, is an attacking batsman and likes to play his shots. However, he has issues against spinners. It will be interesting to see whether if Malan gets a game ahead of Reeza in this series.