Focus on de Villiers as South Africa seek change to the mood music

Before you continue reading this, channel your inner amnesiac. Forget everything you have heard South Africa say before every multi-team tournament, only so that you aren't too bored with hearing it all again. Now here goes:

"Going to the Champions Trophy, we have enough talent to win that tournament and the World Cup in 2019."

That's AB de Villiers, five months and 13 ODIs before the next ICC event.

It's pretty close to what he said two months and five ODIs before the 2015 World Cup: "We will be the team to beat at the World Cup."

South Africa's ODI team was in a completely difference space back then - they had just lost 1-4 to Australia, whereas they whitewashed the same opponents 5-0 in their most recent assignment. However, one thing remains the same. They are genuine candidates for the cup, even if they say so themselves, and they are gearing up to fulfil what de Villiers believes is their destiny.

It's why he is has opted out of Test cricket for most of the rest of 2017 but it's also why he is still playing international cricket after more than a year of self-imposed speculation over his future. De Villiers wants to lead South Africa to a major tournament triumph and his task starts now.

Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England are the three opponents South Africa will face in preparation for the Champions Trophy. Apart from winning, there are a couple of key questions South Africa need to answer, specifically, which allrounders are they going to entrust with the lower middle-order duties, and who is going to open the bowling with Kagiso Rabada.

The latter issue is more pressing because South Africa's new-ball plans have been derailed three times. Plan A was for Dale Steyn to do the job as he did in the first three ODIs against Australia last October. Instead, Steyn is expected to be sidelined until June and, even though his return may coincide with the Champions Trophy, he would have had no game time before it. Plan B, as confirmed by coach Russell Domingo, was for Kyle Abbott to do the job, until he made himself unavailable by signing a Kolpak deal.

South Africa did not have really have a Plan C until Lungi Ngidi broke through in the T20 squad. They had included him in their ODI squad, but an abdominal injury will keep him out of action for at least four weeks. Ngidi may yet return for the latter end of the New Zealand ODIs and could still be in contention for the Champions Trophy squad, if he is not overtaken by any other ailments in the meanwhile.

With no replacement named for Ngidi, it will be between the allrounders to see who steps up. Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius and Chris Morris have all been included in the squad. Between them, they will have to control important periods of play with ball in hand and provide middle-order muscle.

Parnell seems the likeliest to open the bowling, Phehlukwayo, who has a good slower ball in his repertoire, has shown a willingness to take responsibility at the death while both Pretorius and Morris are accustomed to keeping things tight through the middle periods. All four of them are solid with the bat in hand. Parnell has opened in franchise T20 cricket, with success; Phehlukwayo was at David Miller's side when the series was won against Australia; Pretorius has done it for the Lions, while Morris single-handedly won an ODI against England, but they all need to show they can do it consistently at international level. The tussle between them in this series will be particularly intriguing and even de Villiers seems interested in seeing how it plays out.

"The minute you think, 'oh no, there goes that guy', or 'that guy is injured' or 'this guy is irreplaceable', the young talent comes though," de Villiers said. "It speaks volumes for the depth we have in our country, in all races and cultures. It's a matter of building great confidence up to there, keeping this great team spirit and making sure the culture is in place and the youngsters get good experience before then."

But beyond the bowlers and batsmen, it's how de Villiers will lead the side that will determine their fortunes in the next two major tournaments. He has been out of the side for six months, during which time South Africa have been successfully led out of last summer's quagmire by Faf du Plessis. The team responded to du Plessis in ways they did not to de Villiers, and that will need to change if he is going to be at the helm when the trophy drought breaks.

De Villiers believes he can instigate that change, because of the reversal in fortunes since he was last involved, last year's tri-series in the Caribbean, when they were forced into introspection after failing to make the final. He was also part of August's culture camp where "we had an honest catch-up with each other where everyone just got rid of emotions and things that bothered them over the last few years leading up to that point.We really got rid of all of that baggage."

South Africa have been saying that since the start of this season but the proof will only come with cup glory. That's what we say every time. Forgive the broken record.