5 immediate challenges for Ottis Gibson as South Africa coach

#4 Finding solutions to improve the stability of the batting order

First T20 International: South Africa v Australia

One look at the recent performances of South Africa, and you can come to a conclusion that their batting order has looked fragile and unstable. Across all formats, the Proteas have lacked bite in the batting order.

Losing a superstar like AB Devilliers for such a long period of time has had a huge impact on the Proteas batting across all formats. He was the balancing factor in the middle order who could guide the batting line up to do well.

The batting line up has been plagued by injuries, poor form and inconsistency, a concern that Gibson would have to look into with immediate urgency. Far too many batsmen have been moved around too much in the batting order.

The inconsistency of their star batsmen when ABD was injured has hurt them even more. The likes of Hashim Amla, Faf Du Plessis and Quinton De Kock have performed well, but having to bear the complete burden of carrying the batting line up they have not lived up to expectations.

Gibson would need to find solutions to end this dependency on those three players, but he would most surely be assisted by the welcome inclusion of ABD across all formats. As he lifts their team’s performance and batsmen who bat around him feel lesser pressure and start performing better.

But can the inclusion of the charismatic ABD be the solution to South Africa’s unstable batting over the past few years? Only time will tell, but Gibson should find other probable alternatives as well.