'They Don't Have Lot of Depth': Smith Highlights South Africa's Weakness in WC 2023
Smith has highlighted SA's weakness in WC 2023 [Twitter]
Heading into the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, South Africa beat Australia 3-2 in a hard-fought five-ODI series and have announced their intentions of winning the coveted title. All South African batters have been in good touch lately, where almost everyone has been scoring hundreds and fifties.
However, former Proteas skipper Graeme Smith has pointed out a glaring weakness. Speaking to PTI, Smith, who led South Africa to become the No.1 ranked side across formats, stated that the World Cup squad lacks batting depth and will miss a quality all-rounder.
Over the years, South Africa have been blessed with all-rounders like Lance Klusener, Jacques Kallis, and JP Duminy, who have taken the nation to greater heights.
Smith, 42, further explained that the form of South Africa's top players will become highly crucial for the African nation to win the trophy.
Here's what Smith said
"Where they fall short is, they don't have a lot of depth in batting like some of the other teams have. Who is going to be that all-rounder for them at No. 7? Marco Jansen or someone else.
If South Africa need to be successful, they would need their 6-7 big players to really have a great World Cup. If you look at top-order you have Quinton, Temba and in that middle-order, really you have really good players of spin, power players like David Miller, Heinrich Klassen and Aiden Markram that's going to be key area for South Africa if they are going to be successful.”
The former skipper did maintain that the unavailability of Anrich Nortje would hurt South Africa but expressed his faith in Kagiso Rabada and Co. to rise up.
The Temba Bavuma-led side will play their opening World Cup 2023 encounter against Sri Lanka on October 7 at Delhi.
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