South Africa’s Heino Kuhn to make his test debut

Protean opener, Heino Kuhn is reportedly set to be selected in the South African Test squad for their upcoming tour against England. This comes in the light of his recent on-field exploits against the England Lions in an unofficial Test. He played a well-made knock of 105 runs for the South Africa A team on day 2 of the match before the middle order fell through.

Apart from Kuhn, the other players in consideration for inclusion in the national squad are his A squad teammates Theunis de Bruyn, Temba Bavuma and Duanne Olivier. Although Kuhn possesses 7 T20 international caps, he is yet to play his first test.

Prolific record

33-year-old Kuhn was the leading run-scorer in the first-class format in the period 2015-16‚ and second on the list in 2006-07. In the 2015-16 session, he amassed 1126 runs at 62.55 with four hundreds and four fifties.

He also recently hit a fluent double century against Hampshire last week. This knock was instrumental in Kuhn’s topping the charts on the first-class component of South Africa A’s tour with 320 runs at 106.66 and two centuries.

The Kuhn-Cook dilemma

Kuhn had earlier been looked over for selection into the Test side. Stephen Cook, being the leading run scorer in the previous season had been preferred ahead of Kuhn. Notably, Cook scored a century on his Test debut.

However, he failed to cement his spot in the squad owing to his bleak streak in the away tours. He scored a meagre 5 runs in four innings before his hundred in Adelaide and 17 runs in four innings in New Zealand. Soon after, he was dropped from the side in the Hamilton Test and replaced by de Bruyn.

However, selection convener Linda Zondi confirmed in the aftermath that de Bruyn would not be considered for a permanent place the top two. As a result, Cook would be looking at being selected into the squad. Essentially, Cook and Kuhn would both be vying for the opener’s slot.

From being behind the wickets to opening the innings

Kuhn might have an edge over Cook for being selected because of his wicket-keeping abilities. As quoted from ESPNCricInfo, “Though Kuhn no longer regularly keeps wicket for his franchise, the Titans, he has done the job for several of his 12 years as first-class cricketer.”

It was under the supervision of Protean great, Mark Boucher, that Kuhn was moved from being a wicketkeeper-batsman to opening the innings. This decision was taken by Boucher after having noted the opener’s spot to be the only gaping hole in the squad.

Squad announcement:

However, Kuhn’s selection suggests that South Africa will remain shaky when it comes to their top two slots for some time in the future. Neither Cook, nor Kuhn, both being on the wrong side of the 30 years mark, can be considered as long term solutions to the opening spot dilemma.

South Africa’s Test squad will be announced at the conclusion of the ongoing A-match against the England Lions at Canterbury. What remains to be seen is whether Cook will be re-entrusted with the baton of opening the innings for his team, or if Kuhn will get his debut cap in the series.