JP Duminy had found some form at the start of the World T20 © AFP
JP Duminy has been ruled out of South Africa’s World T20 match against West Indies on Friday after sustaining a hamstring strain in their game against Afghanistan. The exact length for his recovery is unknown but South Africa are hopeful of having him ready for their final group game against Sri Lanka on Monday.
He sustained the injury when he chased the third ball of Afghanistan’s innings and left the field before the opening over was completed.
“He was chasing the ball full steam and realised he was too close to the boundary and tried to stop himself. These things happen,” Mohammad Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager, said although he did not sound overly optimistic about Duminy’s prospects of recovery.
“Brandon Jackson, our physio, will have his work cut out for him. With these things you can’t really put down a time frame. It could be anything from seven to 14 days. We know in the past there were guys that recovered earlier than expected and guys that just didn’t. It’s very much a wait and see and see how he responds. It’s very important that he goes through the return to play protocols and passes a fitness test to be considered for selection.”
When asked if there are thoughts of replacing Duminy in the squad, Moosajee dismissed those. “It’s still very premature,” he said.
Duminy’s absence will leave South Africa with a selection conundrum ahead of the West Indies meeting. Nagpur’s surface will demand more than one slower-bowling option – New Zealand played three spinners there to beat India – and Duminy could have provided that. So far, South Africa have only fielded one specialist spinner in Imran Tahir but are likely to also look to the other spinner in their squad Aaron Phangiso against West Indies.
Phangiso has not played an international match since October last year and has recently had to remodel his action after it reported in domestic cricket during February. The only cricket Phangiso has played with his new action was in the two warm-up matches in India, in which he bowled a total of four overs.
Phangiso’s inclusion will also shorten South Africa’s batting line-up which could force another change. One of the allrounders, Chris Morris or David Wiese, may have to make way for either Rilee Rossouw or Farhaan Behardien, both of whom can also bowl a bit.
Still, South Africa appear depleted without Duminy, who is their highest run-scorer in international T20 cricket and has enjoyed a return to form after a summer in which he was dropped from the Test and the ODI team. Duminy scored an unbeaten 54 in South Africa’s first match against England – his first fifty in 22 international innings – and topped up with 29 not out against Afghanistan.
Duminy has a number of injury issues in recent times. In October, he was ruled out of two ODIs and a Test against India with a finger problem. He also missed two matches at last year’s World Cup with a side strain and was in danger of missing the tournament after a knee injury sidelined him for six weeks towards the end of 2014. That was all after he had recovered from a torn Achilles’ tendon on the tour of Australia at the end of 2012, which took seven months to recover from.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo