Van der Dussen loads Proteas' youngsters ahead of Zimbabwe showdown

DESPITE the loss to New Zealand earlier this week, South Africa, across all three formats, is in a really good position with regard to the quality of the talent pool.

Yes, the country has been rocked with sudden retirements, including that of Heinrich Klaasen recently; however, there are players in the system who have shown good signs.

Currently, in the ongoing Tri-Series in Zimbabwe, Rubin Hermann has taken up space in the number four position in the batting order, and so has Dewald Brevis in the middle-order.

At the top of the order, Lhuan-dre Pretorius looks as good as any of the top T20I opening batters in the world.

Moreover, outside of the newbies in international cricket, Nandre Burger and Gerald Coetzee have returned from injury and immediately showed good signs, bowling fast, which is precisely what coach Shukri Conrad would want.

Considering the current state of affairs with regard to the widening and ever-improving talent pool, Captain Rassie van der Dussen believes no country in the world has the quality and quantity that South Africa has right now.

"I look at some other countries with their guys coming through, and they don't have what we have. The young guys coming in now are guys who've knocked the door down, either in performance or how they've gone about it," Van der Dussen told the media on Saturday.

"If I think like, okay, Luandre hasn't put in two years of domestic performance, but what he did for the Titans, what he did in SA20, you could just see, this guy needs to play at this level, for example. Brevis, through performance, yes, he played two T20s against Australia a while ago, but now, through performance over the last six months, he's really made that spot his own, and putting guys under pressure in the middle of it.

"As a player in a team, that's that positive pressure you want, you want someone breathing down your neck, because that's fair, if you don't perform, there's a guy there that's going to take your place, and in a team environment, that's always a good place to be, so it's not like, you know, I can rest on my laurels, because there's no one really pushing me for my spot.

"I think in every spot, every department, bowling, spin bowling, fielding, keeping, batting, middle order batting, there's guys putting their hands up and saying, listen, I want to be part of this team, I want to stake my claim in this team, and that, obviously, as the guy's in position, that keeps you on your toes, and there's that hunger from the guys behind saying, listen, I also want to be here."

Though the youngsters are promising, Van der Dussen understands that there is a long way to go, and it showed during their first two matches of the ongoing Tri-Series.

Going into tomorrow's match against hosts Zimbabwe and for the rest of the series, Van der Dussen wants the team to gel well together.

"We're quite a young team and a dynamic mix. So, it was always going to be a challenge to try and get us to play together as a team that knows each other well. Yes, we know each other, we've played against each other, but guys like Lhuan-dre, they've been in the Test setup, yes, and Rubin coming in, even Gerald and Nandre coming back after what seems like forever, (we need to) get that jelling, to get the feeling of a jelling unit," said Van der Dussen.

"As an environment goes, that's great, we come here, we don't feel like there's guys missing, and in our prep, and how we talk, and how we conduct ourselves, how we walk around, we don't feel, okay, our captain Aidan is not here, or Dave is not here, or KG is not here, it's not that. The guys that are here now, they're here in the team for a reason, they're now taking ownership of the series."

The fixture between South Africa and Zimbabwe is set to get underway at 1 pm SAST at the Harare Sports Club.