SA look for new stars in transition phase

Hashim Amla confirmed what much of the cricket world suspected about ODIs outside of the World Cup: they don't really have that much importance. But he did so as only Hashim Amla can. With a delicate touch and elegant expression, Amla explained how other formats will fill the spotlight for now.

"With ODIs now, a lot of focus will be off the ODIs, because there is no World Cup looming - it's in four years time - so the way I see it, ODI cricket is going to be a lot more of a transitional phase," Amla, who is standing in for AB de Villiers as captain for the series against Bangladesh, said.

South Africa will transition out of the disappointment of another World Cup failure and into a hectic season, which will culminate in the World T20. From there, they may start thinking about the 2017 Champions Trophy, the 2018 World T20 and then, in four year's time, the 2019 World Cup.

Amla, 32, does not even know if he will still be playing at 36. Neither do some of the other senior players. Four years is a long time in international cricket and there is little point in planning that far ahead at the moment. Instead, they will stand as bridges, between one group of ODI players and the next. And to a lesser extent, between one way of playing ODI cricket and another.

"With the new rules coming in, every team is going to be trying to work out, quite quickly, what style to play to get a winning way. That's one aspect and the other aspect is that it's going to be a transition of getting the right team for four years' time," Amla said.

In order to decide what that right team is, South Africa will use ODIs for experimentation. For this series, they've left out Dale Steyn and de Villiers (although that was partly forced by a one-match ban) and Amla expects more rotation as the schedule fills up. "This type of thing is very healthy especially after a long season and with a long season to come. You are going to see some new faces and I think that's really nice," he said.

Among the new names are Kagiso Rabada and Eddie Leie, but South Africa have stuck to familiar faces in the batting department. Rilee Rossouw is the most new in both age (25) and number of ODIs (20), but even he does not entirely lack for experience. Rossouw has already played in a World Cup knockout matches and seems to have an understanding of how to deal with pressure.

So what it is exactly are South Africa after from this series, besides a trophy? Primarily, it seems priming for life after de Villiers is in the plans. "The team will miss him. He is probably one of the best fielders in the world, he is definitely the best batter in the world but it's a good chance for someone else," Amla said.

"There is always responsibility on the batsmen, especially in the subcontinent. It's difficult for batters to just come in and start to play their game. We are hoping that whoever gets opportunity to get into the game, bats as big as possible. Whatever the team is , the responsibility falls on the batters, whether you have AB in your team or not. But with the world's best player not in your team, you hope a lot of us can rally around and put in some big performances."

The other issue will be deciding on which allrounder to use. With Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris and Ryan McLaren in the side, there are plenty of choices. Other than that, South Africa will only want to win some games of cricket and enjoy knowing that no greater emphasis needs to be placed on this series.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, may beg to differ with all of this. The World Cup was the springboard for their recent success, when they reeled off back-to-back series wins against their much bigger brothers. It's not the first time Bangladesh have won consecutive series but beating Pakistan and India one after the other has a bit more of a ring to it than successive wins over New Zealand and Zimbabwe - which they managed in 2010.

For that reason, South Africa will be wary. The last thing they want during a building phase is to have the whole house crash down on them, so they are making sure their foundation - at least in mindset terms - is solid. "We will be giving Bangladesh all the respect the deserve, certainly over their recent performances," Amla said. "Having won the last two series, they've been playing good cricket so we will give them just as much respect as we give anyone else."