MARCO Jansen is not in the North West Dragons squad that have travelled to Gqeberha for the first round of the Four-Day Series against the Warriors, which starts today (10am).
The all-rounder was available for the Potchefstroom-based outfit throughout the recently concluded Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge, as he eased back into action after a lengthy rehabilitation and conditioning break that started after the Major League Cricket event in July.
The fast bowler was also training with the Proteas Test squad at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria before the squad departed for Bangladesh a few weeks back.
With his break nearing an end, the 24-year-old has become a hot topic among local cricket fans with regards to how the left-arm fast bowler will fit into the Proteas squad this summer, as South Africa host Sri Lanka and Pakistan for two Tests each.
These questions come after Wiaan Mulder’s brilliant performances in the last two Test series in the Caribbean and the ongoing Bangladesh showdown, where the all-rounder struck his maiden Test ton in the second Test in Chattogram yesterday to go along with his brilliant new-ball spell in Mirpur during the first match.
This has caused a lot of unnecessary confusion, which coach Shukri Conrad already cleared up in a recent media engagement while on tour in Bangladesh.
“If everything stacks up, I’d like to see them (Jansen and Mulder) play together because I’ve also said before that Marco is probably not your ideal number seven, but is a really good number eight,” Conrad emphasised following the Proteas’ seven-wicket victory in Mirpur.
“It’s always going to be around the conditions that we play in, on whether we are going to play seven out-and-out batters with Marco at eight, or whether we play Wiaan as the all-rounder at seven and still have Marco at eight.”
Here, Conrad emphasised that Jansen plays in his Test XI regardless of the combination selected for a particular Test, and further states that Mulder, in his eyes, is an all-rounder, while Jansen does not yet fit in that category.
With the Proteas in with a good chance to qualify for the World Test Championship at Lord’s next year, Jansen is likely to put on his whites later in the ongoing Four-Day Series as preparation for the all-important Proteas Tests this summer.
While Jansen misses out in today’s match at St George’s Park, his Dragons teammates will take on a strong Warriors side in their backyard.
In Paarl, Boland will be hosting the Division One newbies, the Knights, at Boland Park.
Out in Durban, the Dolphins started well in their fixture against Western Province yesterday, as they dismissed the visitors for 212.
STUMPS DAY 1 | Hollywoodbets Dolphins 43/0 (13).
Erwee (25*), Dithole (15*).
Earlier, WSB WP 212 all out (72.5) - first innings.
Nabe (16*). Smith 92, Linde 34. #WPcricket #westernprovince #WSBNewlands #WSBWP🧡 #BoysInBlue💙#WozaNawe #4DaySeries pic.twitter.com/j158hyAOT3
Young wicket-keeper batter Daniel Smith top-scored with 92 for WP, while Prenelan Subrayen finished with figures of 3/49 to help his team dismiss the Capetonians at Kingsmead.
The Dolphins finished on 43/0, and head into today’s with Sarel Erwee (25) and Tshepang Dithole (15) at the crease.