Proteas coach Russell Domingo has backed JP Duminy to perform for South Africa in the T20 format over the next few months.
Duminy was dropped for the fifth ODI against England at Newlands which South Africa won by five wicket to take the series, but he remains one of the leading T20 batsman in the world.
Domingo was asked at a press conference on Wednesday whether he was concerned about the form of Duminy and David Miller, who didn’t feature in the ODI series at all, but Domingo was adamant that Duminy was not in bad form at the moment.
‘Cricket is a strange game. Look at JP’s last few innings: in PE, he had a good partnership with AB, got a very average decision missing leg-stump. The next game [at Centurion] he didn’t bat, the next game he got 35 [31] and actually played beautifully in Johannesburg. So he is not in bad form, he’s actually playing really well,’ Domingo said.
‘The first T20 game in India he played for us, we chased 200, he won the game for us [scoring 68 off 34]. He was the Man of the Series in the T20s. JP is a quality cricketer. He is a phenomenal cricketer for South Africa and has been for a long time. Unfortunately, what happens is when a player misses out once or twice; gets a bad decision, hits a few bad shots, people write them off. He is a hell of a player and I’m expecting big things from him in this particular series.’
Miller has been included in the World T20 squad, but is finding it hard to break into the ODI side and sat out all five games against England.
‘Unfortunately we can only play six or seven batters; that is just the way it goes,’ Domingo explained.
‘It’s difficult to leave out Quinny, difficult to leave out Hashim, difficult to leave out Faf, quite difficult to leave out AB, JP is a hell of a player, Rilee has come back into the side and he’s a good player. Farhaan has done really well if you look at his last year of ODI cricket he’s averaging nearly fifty.
‘So it’s difficult. There is always going to be someone who’s unlucky when you select the side, that is just how it works.’
On the decision to drop Duminy for the fifth ODI and play Rossouw, Domingo said: ‘As much as people try and keep criticism away from you and media speculation and constant scrutiny, it can weigh you down sometimes.
‘We know he’s a quality player. We wanted to look at Rilee Rossouw, who had only played two games; get Rilee up the order at No 4 and bat AB de Villiers at No 5. That was the main reason. He’s played every ODI game for us over the last six or seven months so it was a good time for him to just have a little bit of a break.’
