Proteas cricket team to tour India

Our boys are off to India in February, and I was looking at the squads that have been selected. There are some interesting selections here, but most of the squad remains the same:

Test squad Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Paul Harris, Jacques Kallis, Ryan McLaren, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Alviro Petersen, Ashwell Prince, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

I find the inclusion of Johan Botha strange to be honest, I agree that you need a second specialist spin bowler when playing in the sub-continent, but why Botha? Remember that Botha is not allowed to bowl the Doosra, which makes him predictable. Where is van der Merwe is the test squad, or how about backing Petersen to step up as a main bowler? As for Prince, who really knows why he’s there, I don’t think his inclusion is based on pure cricketing reasons.

ODI squad Graeme Smith (capt), Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Alviro Petersen, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Roelof van der Merwe.

Welcome back Herschelle Gibbs, who must be seen to be taking the place of Hashim Amla, which I think shows that the selectors are moving Amla into a specialist Test cricketer, as they have done with Paul Harris.

Both squads are great, this is going to be a massive test for this mixture of experienced and young cricketer alike.