Twitter unimpressed with Hashim Amla's selection in South Africa's World Cup 2019 squad
While Amla has not managed to deliver as per expectations, Hendricks has grabbed his recent opportunities with both hands.
South Africa were facing a huge dilemma before announcing their World Cup squad. They had to choose between one – out-of-form but a proven campaigner Hashim Amla or the promising Reeza Hendricks. Speculations were rife that the selectors would drop the veteran batsman in order to make room for Hendricks who has impressed in recent times. While Amla has not managed to deliver as per expectations, Hendricks has grabbed his recent opportunities with both hands.
Hendricks, who scored a century on his ODI debut, scored 412 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 142.56 with four consecutive fifty-plus scores – including back-to-back hundreds – in the Mzansi Super League. In South Africa’s last international assignment which was the T20I series against Sri Lanka, he scored two fifties. On the other hand, Amla has managed to score just 61 runs in 5 innings of the ongoing CSA T20 challenge.
However, the South Africa selectors went for experience over promise as they picked Amla over Hendricks in the 15-man squad announced on Thursday. With Aiden Markram being the other opener in the squad, Hendricks had to miss out. With Amla failing to do well in recent times, the only thing that perhaps worked in his favour was his experience. The veteran batsman is the most experienced batsman in the current South African team.
A veteran of 174 ODIs, Amla has so far scored 27 tons. Amla has so far played in two World Cups and has done reasonably well. In 15 World Cup innings so far, he has scored two centuries although they came against Netherlands and Ireland. In addition, he also scored three fifties. In both the World Cups, he scored over 300 runs. Moreover, he enjoys a very good track record in England. The right-handed batsman has so far played 17 ODI innings in England, scoring 851 runs at an average of 56.73 with two hundreds and four fifties.
Amla’s selection, however, did not go down well with many as a number of fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment over the decision.
Here are some of the reactions:
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