Understanding South Africa’s T20 challenges: Walter’s insights

IT is easy to highlight South Africa’s woeful returns in bilateral T20 cricket over the last two years, particularly following the 3-1 series loss to India at home on Friday, and cast stones at head coach Rob Walter, his management team and also captain Aiden Markram.

Perhaps that is just the nature of how the world works, the leaders always take the blame, but the journey of this Proteas white ball team deserves to be examined at a much deeper level.

🟢🟡Match Result

🇮🇳India win by 135 runs in Johannesburg.

They win the 4-match Wonder Cement T20i Series 3-1.#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/6bHkPYT3g8

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) November 15, 2024

Like any other country in the world, South Africa find themselves having to scramble for players due to the ever changing landscape of professional cricket around the world.

The high volume of T20 cricket around the league has led to this point where teams around the world now have to take the concepts of rest and player management much more seriously than ever before.

Except for India and Australia, two countries which have the world’s strongest T20 leagues and thus the best talent acceleration systems, all international sides are playing catch up and South Africa are in the same boat.

Walter finds himself having to widen the pool of players for his white-ball teams and he has decided to use bilateral series to complete his project.

The 49-year-old brought back Lutho Sipamla for the third and fourth T20Is as he continued to expose fringe players to the highest level against the best opposition.

🟢🟡Match Result

🇮🇳India win by 135 runs in Johannesburg.

They win the 4-match Wonder Cement T20i Series 3-1.#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/6bHkPYT3g8

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) November 15, 2024

“To grow the net of players there are times where you have to play the younger guys even in big series against big teams and ultimately that’s where they are going to learn the most,” Walter told the media post-South Africa’s 135-run loss to India on Friday.

“So, it’s really a balancing act. We are trying to get rest right, we’re trying to get exposure, all at the same time. It doesn’t excuse the performance, we still need to be better and that starts with me as the head coach of the team.

“In this instance, we gave exposure to Lutho Sipamla from a bowling point of view, Nqaba Peter before that. We are trying to move our team forward. As I said after the World Cup, everyone needs to play their part in terms of transforming this team and make it more representative, that’s part of the journey.”

Walter explained how it is not only South Africa that find themselves in this situation of a desperate need to widen the pool of players.

The 49-year-old also emphasised that the blooding of inexperienced players is not an excuse for the dismal failure to win bilateral series over the last two years.

Markram has had a poor run in T20s in 2024

The one thing he is doing right is winning tosses; we bowl

No Mpongwana yet

Just the one change with Lutho Sipamla coming in for Nqaba Peter

I know Sipamla had a good T20 Challenge Final, but I am not yet sold on him in this format pic.twitter.com/KzCLgGmBYh

— Werner (@Werries_) November 13, 2024

“We have to build our base of players up to the same level which is what you’re seeing with the Indian side, their fringe players are stepping and creating pressure on the guys that fill the main 11,” he said.

“Ultimately, if you look at the stats around the number of players that are used by the different international sides, they are all sitting in the same space over the last two years betweeen 30 to 36 players.

“So, everyone is attempting to do the same thing because the cricket landscape is actually the same for everyone. If you look at the win percentages of those teams, they sit in a similar space as well in 50 over cricket and T20 cricket barring India and Australia in T20 cricket.

“Everyone is in a fairly similar situation in terms of bilateral cricket but again there are no excuses, we haven’t played well enough. How do you figure out where you’re at? You’ve got to go and compete against the best, expose players to the highest level and see where they are at and understand what you need to work on.”