South Africa Tour Of England: Hopefully, We Get The Proper Headache Of Having Everyone In The Runs - Mark Boucher

South Africa men’s cricket team head coach Mark Boucher said the target is to give every player the opportunity to showcase their talent in the upcoming England tour. South Africa are due to play England in three ODIs, three T20Is and three Tests in a two-month-long period.

South Africa will face England Lions in a couple of warm-up games in the 50-over format before they take on Jos Buttler and his men in the first One-Day International. The first warm-up game will be played on Tuesday (July 12) in Taunton followed by the next in Worcester on July 14.

We get the proper headache of having everyone in the runs: Mark Boucher

Boucher wants his players to acclimatise to the conditions in the two warm-up games and said the team management will pick its potential XI based on the unofficial fixtures.

“We’ve got quite a few options and these games that we’ll be playing in the next few days will hopefully allow us to understand and get to know where the players are as individuals,” Boucher said in a press conference on arrival to England on Monday (July 11). 

“So we have quite a good idea barring one or two extra batters who our front line-up is going to be. We’ll just have to see how the form plays itself out and hopefully, we get the proper headache of having everyone in the runs,” he added.

We’ll try to give everyone a go: Mark Boucher

South Africa will play without the leadership of Temba Bavuma after the latter sustained an elbow injury in the fourth T20I against India last month and subsequently was ruled out of the England tour.

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj will lead the Proteas in the ODI leg while senior man David Miller will take the reins of the T20I series. Boucher explained how the players will be rotated in the two warm-up games.

“There are 17 players, so as much as we can we’ll try to give everyone a go. Unfortunately, it’s two games of cricket, in the first one we’ve opted for a game where we’ll try and get all our batters to bat and then all of our bowlers to bowl. So we don’t know how the game’s going to plan out,” Boucher said.

“We’re having training and practices around these two games now as well where we’ll try to accommodate everyone. It’s quite difficult to do that when you’ve got 17 guys to look after.

“The second game will be a List A game so it’s basically the 11 that you choose, and I’d like to think that it’s going to be close to what we are looking to play in the first game (versus England),” he added.

The first ODI match between England and South Africa will kick off on July 19 at Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street.

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