The South Africa pace bowler, Ottniel Baartman, becomes another new inclusion in the long list of injuries for the side as he is now ruled out of the upcoming third and final ODI of the three-match series against Pakistan at the Wanderers in Johannesburg with a right knee problem. He is now the second bowler after the left-arm spin all-rounder, Keshav Maharaj, was injured on the sidelines in the first ODI game.
Baartman is the sixth seamer this summer to be ruled out of the series, following Gerald Coetzee, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Lizard Williams, and Anrich Nortje. Nortje was planning to play his first international game for South Africa since the final of the T20 World Cup against India in Barbados in June but injured himself on the eve of the T20I series against the Mohammad Rizwan-led side.
Ottniel has featured in the two T20Is against the Green Brigade so far. He ended with a fantastic figure of 1/26 at the Kingsmead in Durban but traveled around the park for his worse figure of 2/51 at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
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In the first ODI at the Boland Park in Paarl, the pacer ended with figures of 2/37 to carry his ODI tally to six wickets in four innings at an average of just below 17 and a strike rate of around 25 with the best bowling figure of 2/32.
He experienced discomfort during the run-up to the second 50-over clash at the Newlands, Cape Town. The Sunrisers Easter Cape is sweating for the pacer’s fitness just three weeks before the start of the third season of the SA20.
South Africa includes Corbin Bosch for the third Johannesburg ODI
That has led the Proteas to hand Corbin Bosch his maiden call-up to the Test squad and to be in line for a debut against the Shan Masood-led side on Boxing Day. The injury of Baartman won’t be affecting the red-ball plans of South Africa, who wait on the fitness of Mulder.
The pace-bowling all-rounder broke his right middle finger in the first Test against Sri Lanka last month before missing the second encounter at Port Elizabeth. However, the possible sign for South Africa is that the right-handed batter has started to nail the balls again and is due to have a scan.
The red-ball coach of South Africa, Shukri Conrad, addressed that they would be conservative in looking at the return of the pace-bowling all-rounder, which suggests the latter nearly ruled out of the Centurion Test. This is a venue where the Temba Bavuma-led side could think of going with all of their pacers.
Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, and Dane Patterson were excellent in the two Tests against Sri Lanka and will retain their place. The toss-up will be between Bosch and the 18-year-old Kwena Maphaka, who made his ODI debut on December 19 and ended with 4/72 in the game, which their side went on to lose by 81 runs to earn another series defeat by 2-0.
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The 30-year-old Bosch, on the flip of the coin, has contributed to the all-rounder’s prospect with 1295 runs in 50 innings at an average of 40.46 with the help of ten half-centuries besides picking up 72 scalps in 58 first-class innings, shouldering on three four-wicket hauls with the best bowling figure of 5/69 in an inning.
Both these Tests will be vital for South Africa as they aim for the qualification of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final, but before that, they will try to end the Wanderers ODI with pride.