South Africa Should Persist with Stiaan van Zyl Until After England Series

Stiaan van Zyl's first stint as Test opener probably hasn’t gone quite as he hoped it would. After getting a good start in the first innings against Bangladesh, he was strangled down the leg side. His second dig was interrupted by rain, and he will have to wait until Saturday to either make his mark or wait around some more.

Following this Test, he will have one more match to get into the right frame of mind for what is likely to be a tough few months, not just for South Africa’s rookies, but even their senior batsmen.

Van Zyl was earmarked for the opening role when Alviro Petersen called it quits last year. Usually at three in the batting order, Van Zyl was promoted up the order by his franchise toward the latter part of South Africa’s domestic season this year.

He also opened the batting for the South African A team against the England Lions and had a pretty decent run. In the five games he opened, he scored 341 runs at an average of 42.62, with a century and two half-centuries to his name. Against England, he managed just one half-century, with 39 and one in his other two innings.

So far, Van Zyl has done nothing to suggest that he doesn’t belong at the top of the South African order, but his record in the sub-continent is fairly dubious. In 2010, he travelled to Bangladesh with the South African A team and scored just 36 runs in two first-class games. He logged similar results when he visited Sri Lanka.

In two games he managed 98 runs, 50 of those coming in one knock. On the tour to Sri Lanka, Van Zyl opened the batting. However, both of those assignments were five years ago, and Van Zyl has become a much-improved player since then, but South Africa have a pretty tough few months ahead.

First, they will travel to India for four Tests and then host England for four Tests over the summer. If the southpaw fails in India, South Africa might be tempted to look elsewhere for their next opener. But that would be foolish.

Curiously, South Africa’s domestic four-day competition does not start until 17 December, by which time preparations for the first Test against England will be well underway. Thus, there will be little to go on when it comes to judging who is in form and who is not in the longest format of the game.

But more importantly, they should show faith in a player who they have hand-picked to fill the opening role. South Africa does have a decent record of sticking with players, but when the pressure is on, it can sometimes make people do strange things.

Still, having Van Zyl in the opening berth against England in conditions that he is familiar with will be beneficial to the Proteas. Although he is not a regular opener, Van Zyl opened the batting on a number of occasions early in his career.

During the age-group stages of his career, including at the under-19 level, he opened the batting. He also opens regularly for his franchise in limited-overs cricket and most recently did so during the 2011-12 domestic Twenty20 season, scoring 444 runs at an average of 40.36, including a top score of an unbeaten 86.

There's a long way to go yet until the England series, but unless Van Zyl is injured, there is no reason South Africa should not stick with him until at least next year.