The South Africa National Cricket Team have suffered a massive blow as the 28-year-old batsman Tony de Zorzi has suffered a severe hamstring injury.
The injury suffered by Tony de Zorzi has ruled him out of the remainder of the ODI series against the England National Cricket Team.
How did Tony de Zorzi get injured?
De Zorzi picked up the injury while fielding during the ODI series opener between the Proteas and the Three Lions at Headingley in Leeds on Tuesday, September 2.
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He went for a dive on the boundary to stop the ball from going for a four after Jos Buttler hit it brilliantly. The efforts of Tony de Zorzi didn’t go in vain as he stopped the ball successfully, but paid a heavy price for it.
He looked in instant discomfort as he had hurt his left hamstring and left the field for treatment. Later, CSA revealed that De Zorzi had suffered an injury and would not return to the field, but would bat if required.
Tony de Zorzi has now been told to travel back to South Africa to undergo scans and determine the extent of the injury.
CSA name no replacement for Tony de Zorzi
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has decided not to name any replacement for De Zorzi in the squad, and he is set to be replaced by the in-form Matthew Breetzke in the playing XI for the second game.
Notably, the World Record holder Matthew Breetzke missed out on South Africa’s last two ODIs against Australia and England due to a left hamstring injury. However, he has now recovered and is ready to go.
Other than Breetzke, the premier pacer Kagiso Rabada also missed the ODI series opener against England, and currently, there is no update on his availability.
Meanwhile, the Proteas skipper, Temba Bavuma, is likely to be rested for one of the last two games as part of his workload-management plans.
Very important to start well – Temba Bavuma
South Africa won the first ODI against England in a dominant fashion by 7 wickets, and speaking after the match, Temba Bavuma highlighted the importance of starting off well in a series.
Bavuma added that they were clinical with the ball and also did a good job while fielding, which they want to improve a lot. He elaborated:
“Very important to start well, that’s something we spoke about, to continue the momentum from the Australia series. Clinical with the ball. We still managed to take wickets despite them putting us under pressure in the powerplay. With the ball don’t think you can fault too much. With the bat we could have been little bit clinical at the end, we started well led by Aiden at the top.
“We caught well, fielding is something we want to improve, the ball flies off on this square but we did well. Just build on the momentum and keep pushing our standards up. We play again on Thursday at Lord’s. It might be different conditions. We have our own standards and we want to keep getting better.”
