Will the consistency of IPL be replicated in SA20 by JSK?

image-lclu9cw2Team bus of Joburg Super Kings (Source: Twitter)

With the SA 20 knocking on the doors, we move to the next team for analysis. In this article, we will talk about Joburg Super Kings. 

This franchise is owned by the most consistent team in the history of the Indian Premier League - Chennai Super Kings. So, will JSK be able to repeat the antiques of CSK? To find an answer to the question the first thing we need to do is to look at their squad. 

Batters: Faf du Plessis (Top order), Janneman Malan (Top order), Donavon Ferreira (Middle order),  Reeza Hendricks (Top Order), Kyle Verreynne (Wicketkeeper and middle order batter), Leus du Plooy (Middle Order).

All-rounders: Romario Shepherd (Lower order power hitter and medium pacer), Lewis Gregory (Lower order power hitter and medium pace bowler).

Pacers: Gerald Coetzee (Pace Bowler), Nandre Burger (Medium Fast), Malusi Siboto (Medium Pace), George Garton (Pace Bowler), Alzarri Joseph (Pace Bowler), Lizaad Williams (Pace Bowler).

Spinners: Maheesh Theekshana (Mystery Spinner), Caleb Seleka (Leg Spinner).


Strength 

1.Well balanced batting line-up: The batting line-up of Joburg Super Kings looks properly distributed. While they have names like Reeza Hendricks, Faf du Plessis, and Jannemalan Malan to give them solid starts, they also have Verreynne, Leus du Plooy for the middle order and power hitters like Donavon Ferreira and Romario Shepherd for the death overs. 

image-lcluas75Faf du Plessis (Source: Twitter)

2. Strong Pace bowling unit: The Joburg bowling unit boasts of some very brilliant pace bowling names such as Alzarri Joseph, Malusi Siboto, Nandre Burger and George Garton. This solid pace unit will trouble a lot of batting line-ups in the tournament. 

Weakness

1.Lack of depth in the all-rounder department: Romario Sheperd and Lewis Gregory are the only two properly designated all-rounders in the tournament. So, JSK does lack options in this department. 

image-lcluh6t2Romario Sheperd (Source: Twitter)

2. Absence of a decent backup spinner: Maheesh Theekshana and Caleb Saleka are the only two options for the team in the spin department. Besides these two names, there are no other spinners in the squad. Thus there is a bit of a lack of depth in this section for the team. 

Note: Harry Brook will not be a part of the tournament in 2023. This will upset the balance and the plan of the team for the tournament. But they will get a replacement for him and it will be interesting to see whom they bring in.

X-Factor

Donavon Ferreira 

Donavon Ferreira is a dynamic batter. In T20s he has a strike rate of over 150. He adds great flexibility to the batting line-up of the Joburg Super Kings where there are already some grafters in the top order. 

Probable Playing XI of JSK

  1. Faf du Plessis (c)
  2. Janneman Malan
  3. Reez Hendricks
  4. Kyle Verreynne (wk)
  5. Donavon Ferreira 
  6. Romario Shepherd ✈️
  7. Maheesh Theekshana ✈️
  8. Alzarri Joseph ✈️
  9. Caleb Seleka
  10. Malusi Siboto
  11.  Nandre Burger 

Also Read: SA20: Live Blog, Streaming, Squads and all the details from the auction