NEIL MANTHORP: Jansen’s omission proves costly for South Africa as England’s batsmen dominate

This South African team is not the first to select the wrong starting XI and misread conditions on the first day of a Test match, and they won’t be the last. 

But such was England’s dominance on the second day that any discussion of the tourists’ misguided, long-term planning and the reasons for the omission of all rounder Marco Jansen seem churlish.

Yesterday was all about Ben Stokes and it was clear that Dean Elgar and his players thought so too judging by the number of them who applauded his century and patted him on the back when he was dismissed a few balls later.

Keshav Maharaj was among the South Africa players to congratulate England’s Ben Stokes

In previous series between these countries animosity levels have simmered and occasionally boiled over. Not this time.

Captain Elgar spoke often about how his squad ‘covered all the bases’ with a battery of fast bowlers to choose from and, for the first time in the modern, post-isolation era, two match-winning spinners. He spoke just as often about how ‘flexible’ his team could be. And so determined was he and the team management to be flexible that they made their minds up weeks ago to be flexible by playing off-spinner Simon Harmer alongside left armer Keshav Maharaj. 

Selecting the final XI is less flexible for South African teams than for others given the need for a racially diversified team but it is a subject rarely spoken about these days, and for understandable reasons. Jansen’s omission was an eyebrow-raiser for everybody. The 6ft 8in left armer is one of the world’s most exciting talents and his impact at Lord’s was significant with bat and ball. The term ‘X-factor’ is used by all his team-mates when describing his qualities.

Marco Jansen’s omission raised eyebrows after his impressive display in the first Test

Apart from his height, pace and the extra depth he would have added to the batting line-up, the rough he would have created outside the right handers’ off-stump would have made the excellent Harmer an even greater threat. Although none ‘deserved’ to be omitted, the obvious member of the pace quartet to make way for Harmer, based on what happened at Lord’s, would have been Lungi Ngidi.

In years gone by, when Cricket South Africa’s racial targets feature in discussions about team selection, black cricketers have been unfairly labelled as ‘quota players’. In the case of Ngidi that would not just be deeply disrespectful but laughably inaccurate. He has taken 50 Test wickets at a staggering average of 21.6. He would be a contender for any Test team.

But the Proteas are committed to reaching a minimum target of six players-of-colour per match of whom three should be black African. It used to be a target for every game but was changed two years ago to a 12-month average across all three international formats. Such is the increasing depth and quality of black cricketers in South Africa these days it has not even been the subject of conversation for years.