Opening batsman Hashim Amla will continue to be absent from the South African squad as the veteran is yet to recover completely from his finger injury. South Africa are set to announce their squad for a short limited-overs series in Australia where they will play three ODIs and one T20I next month and Amla will sit out of it after missing the recently-concluded series against Zimbabwe.
Amla suffered the injury during the Carribean Premier League and was initially advised three weeks rest following which Dean Elgar replaced him for the Zimbabwe series. While Elgar registered scores of 2 and 4, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks impressed in the third game with one of them now expected to partner the returning Quinton de Kock at the top of the order.
“There are a lot of guys we have in our thoughts who will be in the squad to Australia,” Ottis Gibson said on Sunday (October 14). “Hashim is injured, he is out of the squad already, as a selection group we have already discussed that with him. We want to give him as much time as possible for him to get ready for the next set of cricket that he has coming up.”
“We know that Quinny and Hashim has been a fantastic opening pair for the Proteas for a long time, and we also know that Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram have also been very good in franchise cricket,” Gibson noted.
“The wickets at the start of the series, especially in one-day cricket were a bit tough for batting, so from that point of view we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked, but we know where we are with those two.”
