T20 series underlines value of experience for SA

The thing about plans is that sometimes they don't work out exactly the way one wants them to, as South Africa discovered in the T20 series against Australia. They embarked on the series with some long-term goals in mind, chiefly concerning bench strength, but they may not be entirely convinced by the quality of the fringe players.

They squandered a series lead thanks to a soft underbelly - the same problem which occasionally pops up to handicap the senior side as well - which points to concerns in the batting depth. In two of the three matches, South Africa were winded mid-way through their innings, losing five for 51 in Melbourne and six for 59 in Sydney. The other game, which was the opening match in Adelaide that South Africa won, did not demand anything of the middle order, who were obviously lacking in experience and temperament.

Without Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers, South Africa were missing a combined experience of 103 international T20 caps. Their replacements, David Miller and Farhaan Behardien, with 45 caps between them, have less than half of that experience while Rilee Rossouw and Reeza Hendricks made their debuts in the series. That, however, was the idea for South Africa: to allow players who do not often get the chance at elite level to show what they are made of in one of the toughest places to play cricket. That they did not latch on to the opportunities is a worry.

At least Rossouw made better use of his first T20 cap than he has done with the ODI ones so far. His 78 in Adelaide gave South Africa the series lead and propelled him to joint top-scorer in a series where there were few standout showings with the bat. Both Rossouw and Quinton de Kock totaled 94, which also meant just 16 runs came from Rossouw's other two outings. Hendricks was the next best South African batsman with 67 runs but also only had one noteworthy innings, when he made 49 in the final fixture.

Consistency can be difficult to capture in a T20 event but it was what South Africa were looking for from Miller, who is fighting for his ODI place following a string of low scores. Miller managed just 54 runs in the three matches but was undefeated in two of them. Tellingly, his highest score came when he was moved up the order in the final match which, yet again, suggests Miller should not be used solely as a finisher but should be given time at the crease to get himself in before he can replicate the performances he has become famous for at Kings XI Punjab.

Miller may get that chance in the upcoming one-day series as JP Duminy has been ruled out with a recurrence of his knee injury, opening a slot higher in the line-up. Miller will be up against Rossouw and Behardien for that place, though. Behardien is a part of the ODI squad but has not been in great form - he had scores of 5 and 1 in the T20s and did not rank among the top ten run-getters after the first few games of South Africa's ongoing domestic one-day tournament.

Duminy's absence will deprive South Africa of one of their key players in what is being considered the most crucial component of their World Cup planning, but the side will have a full-strength bowling contingent at their disposal for the ODIs against Australia. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander will join Ryan McLaren, Wayne Parnell, Kyle Abbott and Marchant de Lange even as Lonwabo Tsotsobe tops the bowling charts in domestic competitions back home.

Abbott was handy at the death in the T20 series, an area South Africa are looking to strengthen in ODIs as well. He may have edged ahead of Parnell, whose inconsistency continues. De Lange played just one game in the T20 series, as South Africa chose to blood Under-19 World Cup winner Kagiso Rabada.

Rabada's voyage of discovery would have taught him what the big time is exactly and he will return to his franchise with an understanding of what he needs to work on. He is fast and fiery and has been identified as one for the future but consistency, discipline and accuracy need to find regular homes in his game and, if he is guided in his development properly, that will happen.

The need to keep South Africa's pipeline well-oiled was the biggest lesson to be taken from this T20 series, which showed the value of experience more than it did the "exuberance of youth", which Duminy spoke about at length beforehand. Robin Peterson, who was called in as a late replacement for Aaron Phangiso but only played in the final match, was a case in point.

He made his international return with a haul of 3 for 28 and, together with David Wiese, almost snuck an unlikely win for South Africa. Instead, if Peterson continues to turn in performances like that, he may sneak his way into the World Cup squad. The same could be true for Abbott and de Lange, both of whom have prior experience at this level. If that happens then, for them, this T20 series would have gone exactly according to plan after all.