South Africa may have never ever won the ICC Cricket World Cup but have by all measures been a formidable team in limited overs cricket since their re-admission way back in 1991-92. The Proteas have been a force to reckon with in white ball cricket and enjoyed spells of extended dominance in the late 90s and early parts of the new millennium.
Proteas teams over the years were blessed with world class cricketers in Jacques Kallis, Jonty Rhodes, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith, AB De Villiers, Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla to name a few..who made notable contributions to help them become a powerhouse in limited overs cricket. They were fortunate to be ably led by brilliant leaders and astute captains in Kepler Wessels, Hansie Cronje, Graeme Smith and Faf Du Plessis.
The most admirable and amazing part of their cricket was that they turned out some modern day cricketing greats with superlative consistency, who raised the benchmark of the excellence and kept their glorious legacy intact.
It is a well-known fact that cricketers come and go but teams live forever. Proteas face a major challenge of rebuilding their core side after the recent retirements of their stalwarts in AB De Villiers, Hashim Amla, Imran Tahir and JP Duminy. They are in a state of major transition and need to regroup fast to compete against the best in the world. They are up against formidable ODI teams like England, India, New Zealand and Australia who seem to ruling the roost in ODI cricket.
Faf Du Plessis and Dale Steyn are on the other side of 35 and could be calling it quits from the limited overs format anytime soon. However, everything is not lost for the 'Green and Yellow' Brigade. A closer look at the South African ODI unit indicates that they still can be competitive and give the big guns a real run for their money.
They have a world class opener in Quinton De Cock, who has been an exceptional stroke maker in the limited overs arena over the last couple of seasons. Besides his batting credentials, De Cock has been pretty handy with the gloves behind the stumps. De Cock needs a dependable opening partner at the other end after Hashim Amla bid farewell to ODI cricket. They need the talented Aiden Markram, who seems to have enough potential to deliver more consistently with the bat to shine in top flight cricket.
Skipper Faf Du Plessis has been the mainstay and harbinger of the Proteas middle order by notching up runs with staggering consistency in the shorter format of the game. Rassie Van Der Dussen has come along nicely and was a notable contributor in the recently concluded ICC World Cup in the United Kingdom. Reeza Hendricks has been given a chance to express himself after couple of high scoring seasons in domestic cricket.
Lower down the order, David Miller is still one of the fiercest hitters of the red cherry and can swing games around for the Proteas. Seam allrounders - Andile Phehlukwayo and Chris Morris has shown their destructive ability with the willow and definitely add balance and depth to the squad.
Kagiso Rabada has taken over from the ageing Dale Steyn as the leader of the pace attack. The pace sensation has been exceptional for the Proteas but needs to look after his body well after being sidelined far too often with injuries .
He has good support from the fast improving Lungi Ngidi who has the armoury to compete at the international level. Medium pacers Phehlukwayo and Morris are more than handy in seaming conditions. There is plenty of raw pace around with Dwaine Pretorius and Anrich Nortje but the energy needs to be channelized and put in the right direction.
One gaping hole which the South Africans would find hard to fill it the retirement of their spin king Imran Tahir. Their spin attack has Tabraiz Shamsi but in all honesty he is more of a containing spinner. They need an attacking spinner in their ranks who can turn around games the way Tahir did for them.
Change is the only constant and the South Africans are undergoing one of their most startling transformation in their cricketing history. After a dismal campaign at the 2019 ICC World Cup which saw them get eliminated at the round robin stage, the Proteas have hit a new nadir and know very well that they cant slip any further.
The African nation has time to introspect and need to take one series at a time to get their best combination right and get as a unit to compete with all the rigour and force in top flight cricket.