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London - Written off by many ahead of the tournament, Hashim Amla will now almost certainly open the batting for South Africa when they begin their 2019 World Cup campaign against England at The Oval on Thursday.
Eyebrows were raised when the 36-year-old was selected in the 15-man World Cup squad, with his struggles for consistency in all formats resulting in a lean run of form.
READ: Dale Steyn out of Proteas' World Cup opener
Even after World Cup selection, Amla struggled, with a string of low scores in South Africa's domestic T20 Challenge creating further doubt over his World Cup role.
Amla abandoned the Cape Cobras mid-tournament, opting instead to work on his game in the nets with national batting coach Dale Benkenstein, and at that stage a place in the starting XI for the Proteas in England seemed a long way off.
But, over the last week, Amla has proved that he is far from done.
A knock of 65 (61) in Friday's warm-up against Sri Lanka went a long way towards extinguishing the concerns over Amla, and when he followed that up with 51* (46) in a shortened clash against the West Indies on Sunday, he had made his point.
It is now almost impossible to see South Africa going into Thursday's contest against the best ranked team in ODI cricket without Amla.
"Was there a debate? I didn't know there was a debate," Gibson said when asked if Amla's form had secured him an opening berth.
That is easy to say now, but it has been very clear in the weeks and months leading up to the World Cup that Proteas management has been undecided between Amla and Aiden Markram.
With South Africa expected to be flexible in their team selection throughout the tournament, Markram can still expect to play a role down the line.
On Thursday, however, it looks like Amla will crack the nod.
"Hashim is Hashim and he has played well," said Gibson.
"He had a little dip in form and he had a lot of other things going on in his mind. He was selected and once he's been selected then he comes into the reckoning."
The mental struggles Gibson was referring to centred around Amla's father, who was been seriously ill over the past weeks.
@LloydBurnard is in England covering the 2019 Cricket World Cup for Sport24 ...
Proteas coach Ottis Gibson addressing media at The Oval in London, confirming that @DaleSteyn62 is out of Thursday's CWC opener against England @Sport24news pic.twitter.com/LGOKwY7ofj
— Lloyd Burnard (@LloydBurnard) May 28, 2019
