South Africa spinner Imran Tahir to make Dolphins comeback at 46 for CSA One Day Cup

The return of the 46-year-old Tahir is important for the Dolphins. The Dolphins will lose seven of their best players when they tour South Africa for the five-match T20I series starting March 15.

“Imran is a fantastic team man and we are really looking forward to having him in our space for the One Day Cup,” Dolphins coach Quinton Friend said in a statement. “Having lost all our players on the New Zealand tour, I thought it would be great to bring in a player with Imran’s experience and I’m really excited to have him in our change room.”

With the 50-over World Cup scheduled for South Africa in 2027, when Tahir will be 48, Friend said the relevance of the domestic 50-over competition could not be higher. “The One-Day Cup is a big competition domestically and looking at the way Cricket South Africa is looking to build their squad for next year’s World Cup, it is important that the players understand the 50-over format.

“I think it’s a fantastic format and it’s really important preparing for the World Cup so we can focus on what we want to achieve as a country in that tournament. From a CSA perspective, the One Day Cup is huge for domestic cricket and it’s definitely one of those competitions that everyone wants to win.”

Most of the players representing South Africa in the ongoing T20 World Cup will not travel to New Zealand and will be coached directly by Dolphins player Keshav Maharaj. Other Dolphins participants in the touring party included Nqobani Mokoena, Ottneil Baartman, Prenelan Subrayen, Eathan Bosch, Andile Simelane and Jason Smith. Both Maharaj and Smith are included in the squad for the season opener.

“It would be devastating for us to lose that many players, but having said that, we are very proud of those players. Well done to them, I would say, because they have done exceptionally well and they are being rewarded,” Friend said. “We’re going to have challenges with this, but we’re embracing it and we’ve done a lot of work over the last two years to get our players through the pipeline to the level where they can compete and win for us.

“I’m always looking forward to going out there and winning these trophies and finding consistency in the competition. We have to find a way to put together a team that can win games and that’s an exciting challenge for us.”

Dolphins One Day Cup Squad

Andile Simelane, Marques Ackermann, Imran Tahir, Frenellan Subrayen (captain), Ethan Bosch, Nkobani Mokoena, Kaya Zondo, Slade van Staden, Hanu Viljoen, Romashan Pillay, Tristan Routh, Jonjon Smuts, Otniel Baartman, Chepan Ditole.

Source Link : https://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/1526025.html?ex_cid=OTC-RSS