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Duminy: The danger signals they ignored

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JP Duminy (AP)
JP Duminy (AP)

Cape Town - Veteran batsman JP Duminy's form is all too frequently under a cloud anyway ... but a particularly wretched record in England (and Ireland) was dubiously overlooked, it seems, by the Proteas selectors ahead of what is developing into a nightmarish 2019 World Cup for the national team.

Although he is not alone - David Miller and Hashim Amla, for instance, are other stroke-playing stalwarts already, increasingly under the microscope at the tournament - Duminy skates on ever-thinning ice.

There will be a clamour for Aiden Markram, prolific for Hampshire just a few weeks ago at the Rose Bowl - where SA crashed again to India on Wednesday and also venue of their next encounter against West Indies on Monday - to be returned to the ailing line-up.

Duminy, frankly, looks as ripe as any other misfiring SA batsman for a fall if Markram earns a renewed nod of confidence: in Miller’s "defence", for example, he has at least got going before irksomely falling when well set in each of his innings so far.

But the diminutive Capetonian has registered successive scores at the World Cup of eight (England), 45 (Bangladesh) and three (India) on top of ropey lead-up form in the ODI landscape.

On Wednesday, he fell prey to an old personal shortcoming, against quality spin, of being trapped leg before wicket on the back foot.

Only making matters worse for Duminy (due to quit the 50-overs arena anyway once CWC 2019 is out of the way), is that captain Faf du Plessis appears to have lost faith in his part-time off-spin - something often submitted as justification for keeping him in the team even when his stats at the crease are unconvincing.

The 35-year-old has only sent down three overs across the three Proteas matches thus far (0/24), including pointedly, perhaps, none in the latest reverse to the Indians.

But if questioning his inclusion for the World Cup was justifiable on more general grounds anyway, Linda Zondi's national selection panel gave him the nod despite extremely strong warning signs that he simply doesn't cut it in UK conditions.

Duminy's trio of under-delivering innings at the event have only dragged back further his woeful career record there: after 22 English-staged ODIs stretching back 12 years to 2007, he shows 337 runs at an average of 21.06.

There is not even a half-century to boast in that tally: his best is the 45 against the Bangladeshis a few days ago, eclipsing a previous landmark of 38 not out against Sri Lanka at The Oval in 2017.

Three innings in ODIs in nearby Ireland (during a triangular series also featuring India in 2007) only aggravate the perception that he is better suited to warmer climes and harder limited-overs pitches: he notched 11, 40 and 0 during that tournament.

His career average, after a mammoth 197 matches, currently stands at a touch under 37 (36.97) and he certainly fares better in South Africa itself (average 42.01) and another southern hemisphere powerhouse nation, Australia (45.25).

Markram aside, there are no further specialist batting options in the Proteas'15-strong squad, so it is possible Duminy will yet scrape his way - they have six remaining pre-knockout fixtures at the World Cup - to 200 caps before focussing exclusively on his greater forte these days of Twenty20.

That would make him the seventh South African to get to that mark, after leader Jacques Kallis (328) and then Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs, Jonty Rhodes and AB de Villiers.

But at least in terms of existing track record with the blade in Britain, Duminy - capable of champagne knocks at his best but so unfathomably sporadically - may only limp past the post ...

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

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