Friday, and the selectors have spoken before the rest of us finished arguing. This is the Fluit’s Five Proteas reshuffle edition: a batter out, a batter in, new hands behind the stumps, plus an African Stars home game played in Botswana and a Limpopo stadium finally ready for football.
1. The Big One: the Fluit’s Five Proteas reshuffle
It is official now, not just talk. The Proteas have named 17 for the second Test against Australia, and Tristan Stubbs is not one of them. Matthew Breetzke comes in. The bigger surprise sits behind the stumps: Ryan Rickelton takes the gloves for Gqeberha, while Kyle Verreynne stays in the squad, the Proteas’ own announcement shows (via TimesLIVE and Briefly News).
Stubbs made 32 and 1 at Kingsmead. Tony de Zorzi is still out with his left hamstring, IOL reports. Kagiso Rabada, who sat out Durban, is named and in contention.
Here is why it matters: one Test down with two to play, the selectors chose to change the batting rather than wait. Sunday tells us if they were right. How Australia went 1-0 up at Kingsmead.
2. The Matchday Move: Pirates, away at home in Gaborone
Orlando Pirates play African Stars on Saturday in the CAF Champions League, at the National Stadium in Gaborone. African Stars are the hosts, just not in Namibia. Pirates’ own fixture list still shows no kick-off time, and the reports we have seen disagree, so we are holding off until CAF or the clubs confirm it.
The return leg is in Soweto on Friday 23 October, Pirates’ site shows. Get through Gaborone with something in hand and that second leg in Soweto becomes a very different evening. Every confirmed time is in our weekend fixture guide.
3. The Talking Point: Polokwane gets its stadium back
The New Peter Mokaba Stadium has not hosted a match this season while its pitch was rebuilt, and the delay cost Polokwane its hope of staging the MTN8 final, FARPost reports. Now the PSL has cleared it. Sekhukhune United host Marumo Gallants there on Saturday at 18:00, the league’s match centre confirms, and Kaizer Chiefs will play some home games there this season, according to FARPost.
Our view: this is good news, and overdue. A stadium this size standing empty since the season started in August helps nobody, least of all Limpopo’s football fans. Fill it. What the numbers say about Chiefs this season.
4. The Stat That Matters: 6/49
That was Josh Hazlewood’s return as South Africa were bowled out a second time at Kingsmead, a career-best in Tests, Cricket Australia’s official report records. It was also his second six-wicket haul in three matches.
Why it matters on Sunday: this is the bowler the new-look order has to survive. Rickelton has the gloves now, and the selectors have not yet said whether he still opens. Whoever walks out first in Gqeberha faces the man who finished Kingsmead off, with Australia 1-0 up. The first hour could decide the series. What a second defeat would do to the World Test Championship maths.
5. The One to Watch: Matthew Breetzke
He is 27, plays his domestic cricket for the Warriors, and Cricket South Africa’s own profile calls him a technically accomplished top-order batter. He has played two Tests, in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, TimesLIVE reports, and his ODI form forced the door open: a century in the first match of last month’s series against Australia, and an ODI average close to 59.
Shukri Conrad pointed to that ODI form and to Breetzke’s character when he explained the call. Now comes the hard part: proving that one-day runs travel to red-ball cricket against Hazlewood and company. Why the top order lost Kingsmead.
So, for the braai: was dropping Stubbs the right call, or should the selectors have backed him for one more Test? Pick a side, and tell us why.