A LEGACY IN TROUBLE

Morris injury leaves South Africa with a fast bowling crisis

by Tristan Holme • Last updated on

Chris Morris will miss the Bangladesh series due to injury © Getty

New coach Ottis Gibson faces an unexpected problem ahead of his first series in charge of South Africa: their fast bowling stocks are running dry.

Gibson arrived in South Africa on Monday (September 19) and was officially unveiled at a media conference on Tuesday. With just nine days left before South Africa face Bangladesh in the first Test in Potchefstroom, Gibson said that his to-do list was "as long as to the back of the room". Yet he admitted that one of the most important tasks will be solving a looming fast bowler crisis after it was revealed that Chris Morris will miss the Bangladesh series through injury.

While it was already known that Dale Steyn's bid to recover in time for the series had failed, and Vernon Philander will only be ready for the second Test in Bloemfontein, South Africa's problems deepened on Tuesday when team manager Mohammad Moosajee, who is a medical doctor, revealed that Morris was still battling the lower back problem that kept him out of the fourth Test in England last month.

"He is currently working with the physio at the Titans and we are hoping he will be available to play a franchise game mid-October," Moosajee added. "If he is symptom-free he might be available for the Bangladesh ODI series but the T20 series is more of a reality."

Morris' absence leaves just three established fast bowlers - Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel and Duanne Olivier - available for the first Test. The deeper concern is that there is no queue of promising bowlers waiting for their opportunity - in fact, Gibson and the selectors could be left scratching their heads when it comes to picking a back-up seamer for the first Test. The defections of Kyle Abbott, Marchant de Lange and even Hardus Viljoen to England look increasingly costly for South Africa.

Although Lungi Ngidi enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2016/17, when he made his Twenty20 international debut, the 21-year-old suffered a stress fracture in June and was withdrawn from the South Africa A tour of England. "He has been rehabilitated well with his franchise physio and the medical team and he is now in his final stages of rehab," Moosajee confirmed on Tuesday. "His bowling fitness will allow him hopefully to play during the middle of October."

Malusi Siboto, who was fourth on the Sunfoil Series wicket-taking list last term, is an option along with Dane Paterson, Basheeru-Deen Walters and Shadley van Schalkwyk. They all have an opportunity to impress in the round of Sunfoil Series matches that got underway on Tuesday morning.

Nevertheless, Gibson's conversations with Moosajee have alerted him of a pressing issue. "We have four quality fast bowlers injured; that's a problem, straight away," he said. "To win a match, you need to get 20 wickets. If you can have your best four fast bowlers fit and ready for you then that gives you a great chance of winning Test matches."

With genuine fast bowlers suddenly so scarce, and balance still an issue in the Proteas side, all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo could come into contention for selection for the first Test. The situation would ease if Philander, Steyn and Morris all make successful comebacks, but Moosajee said that they will all need to be managed better going forward.

"It's important that when there's a trend, when you have a number of fast bowlers injured, we need to look at all the pre-supposing factors that contribute to that," he said. "We can talk about age but I still think some of our best fast bowlers who are on the other side of 30 have a lot to offer South African cricket.

"We need to look at the volume of cricket, there is too much cricket taking place for some of these fast bowlers. Maybe we need to wrap some of them up in cotton wool. We need to look at that. The plan is to get them rehabed and ready to start playing cricket, and once that happens, the focus will be to control the volume of cricket that they play and the different formats that they play."

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