Former South African captain and premier bowler Shaun Pollock in his recent interview has urged its national board Cricket South Africa (CSA), to convince star batsman AB de Villiers into the Test set-up for the crucial upcoming series against India and Australia, in a bid to strengthen its batting department which looked rusty on the ongoing tour of England.
“I definitely think they [CSA] have got to go down the route of trying to convince AB de Villiers,” Pollock told Cricket Writers podcast and was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au.
The 44-year-old Port Elizabeth-born bowling all-rounder Pollock, who had been a prominent figure with the ball during his career days for the Proteas, believes with the inclusion of explosive de Villiers they team would go from strength to strength.
“Even if it is just for six months for those two big tours, that he needs to make himself available,” Pollock added.
Interestingly, since playing his last Test match against England at Centurion January 2016, the Pretoria-born 33-year-old de Villiers remained off from the longer-formed after suffering from an injury.
The former right-arm bowler Pollock has also raised the concern over batting form of Faf du Plessis led South Africa which is currently trailing by 2-1, in the four-match Investec Test series against Joe Root-led England.
“Then, the next step would be to try and find someone consistent at the top of the order. I think those are the two big challenges for the South Africans,” Pollock maintained.
Handy with the bat, Pollock had bagged 421 wickets in 108 Tests at the average of 23.11, as he bagged 16 five-wicket haul and 23 four-wicket haul respectively.
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However, it was earlier decided de Villiers won’t feature in the ongoing Test series, in order to allow his body to stay fitter, as the quality batsman while revealing to the local media in June admitted he would have a meeting with CSA regarding his future in international cricket.
“We will see what works for both parties. We are not going to pick and choose games, but we are going to make a final decision about what happens for the next few years,” de Villiers revealed to media in June.
Meanwhile, Pollock is confident of the turn around with the inclusion of de Villiers in the five-day format, as the latter is averaging 50.46, in 167 innings of 106 Tests while playing the dynamic role for the Proteas, across all three formats of the elite-level cricket, since past 13 years of his career.
As South Africa is scheduled to play four-match Test series against Australia in March 2018, the Proteas are also lined-up to host four-match series against India in January, as the official dates of the fixtures are yet to be confirmed from both the concerned Boards.
The right-handed batting prodigy has amassed 8,074 runs while donning the white jersey, as he went on to smash 21 hundreds and 39 fifties. He has also five dismissals to his name as a gloveman and further claimed 197 catches.