All eyes will be on Hashim Amla when the Proteas enter their final stage of World Cup preparation against Sri Lanka at the Sophia Gardens in Wales on Friday (11.20am)
Heading into the tournament, there is a lot of debate around the selection of the Proteas veteran.
Having played 174 ODI matches for the national team, the opener averages an incredible 49.74 per inning.
While there is no arguing his overall record, it’s Amla’s form that nearly cost him a place in the squad.
Of his last 11 innings in all forms of cricket, he hasn’t scored a single half century.
His top score is 32 and he averages just over 12.
Those stats don’t make for good reading heading into a World Cup.
TOUGH DECISION: Proteas boss Ottis Gibson. Photo: Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix.
But eight of those innings were in T20 matches and that’s why it was decided that Amla would work with batting coach Dale Benkenstein instead of playing for the Cobras in the final stages of the domestic T20 Challenge.
Coach Ottis Gibson explains: “Hashim just wanted to get away from the T20 bubble of trying to hit every ball.
“He wasn’t scoring big runs, we felt that hampered his own preparation and his mindset.
“Playing in England, he’s got a very good record.
“He wanted to get back to that - he’s been working on his technical stuff with Benkenstein around the conditions of batting in England, facing the new ball in England.
“He’s done it many times before, he knows what it’s all about.
“We felt it was important to give him the space to do that.
“There were no real dramas of removing him from the that T20 atmosphere - T20 cricket is different.”
Gibson explains the differences in formats as follows: “You have to score off every ball [in T20 cricket].
COMPETITION: Opening bat Aiden Markram. Photo: Backpagepix.
“In white-ball cricket in England, or any cricket in England, batsmen that are trying to score off every ball often tend to give their wicket away.
“We’ve seen Hash make huge amount of runs before and he’s got his own way of going about it.”
With just two warm-up matches - the other against the West Indies on Sunday - to play, time is running out for Amla to prove that he must face the new ball when they play against England in the first match of the tournament next Thursday.
With Aiden Markram also eyeing a spot at the top of the order, these two games are vital for the Bearded Wonder.