South Africa’s new head coach Ottis Gibson will be entering the dressing amid a situation where the team is facing acute injury woes.
Ahead of the first assignment as the head coach, which is the two-Test home series against Bangladesh that starts on September 28, he will be expected to deal with the issue of forming an injury free fast bowling attack.
The West Indian left his post as England bowling coach to take up the top position with South Africa.
“We have four quality fast bowlers injured. That’s a problem straight away,” Gibson said at his first press conference as coach on Tuesday.
“You can’t really develop a team with that type of injury list. We have to take 20 wickets consistently to win Tests. We need a group of fast bowlers ready to perform.”
Dale Steyn’s recovery will take time as he suffers from a strained muscle in his problematic shoulder.
Youngster Lungi Ngidi, who made news earlier this year, is also dealing with a stress fracture in his back which will keep him out until mid-October.
Tow more names joined the injury list recently to make matters worse. Vernon Philander will be unavailable for the first Test after picking up a back problem which he sustained during South Africa’s most recent tour of England. All-rounder Chris Morris, on the other hand, will miss the two-match series entirely because of a back injury.
This series of injury breakdowns has now left Sout Africa with only two fit bowlers – Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel – apart from all-rounders Duane Olivier, Wayne Parnell and Andile Phehlukwayo.
Injuries aside, Gibson will be expected to pave the way for South Africa’s return to the number one position in the Test rankings.
“My philosophy over the next two years is taking the Proteas back to the top of the (Test) pile first of all, then hopefully winning the (2019) World Cup,” he said.
“I’m lucky in a sense, the Proteas have been to number one in the world on a few occasions and not very long ago they were number one in the world.”