The Lions could field up to four players with international experience in their opening match of the Four-Day series against Western Province starting at Newlands on Thursday.
The Lions, who earned a share of the title after drawing a rain-curtailed final against the Titans last season, named a powerful 16-man squad for the first two fixtures of the competition, including seamers Lutho Sipamla and Kwena Maphaka, who have played Tests for the Proteas, and Bjorn Fortuin and Reeza Hendricks, who have played internationally in the white ball formats.
It’s a display of strength that few domestic teams can match. Even without Zubayr Hamza, recently picked for the Proteas Test squad that faces Pakistan, the batting led by skipper Dominic Hendricks looks strong.
Besides the Hendricks duo, Joshua Richards, Connor Esterhuizen and Mitchell van Buuren provide dynamism in the middle order, while 20-year-old Richard Seletswane embarks on a first full season at senior level, with a much expected of him after his exploits at schoolboy level.
The bowling — despite the absence of Codi Yusuf, whose workload is being managed after a busy winter — doesn’t lack pace and in Evan Jones and the newly acquired Bevan Swanepoel has depth and craft.
Western Province lost their opening match to the EP Warriors last week after failing to recover from a first-innings batting collapse that saw them slump to 69/5. Despite scoring more than 300 in the final innings of the match, they fell 48 runs short.
They would have liked to call on David Bedingham and Kyle Verreynne this week, but both, who were heavily involved for their respective county teams in England last week, have been given a break before touring Pakistan with the Proteas.
Like the Lions, the Dolphins were also not in action last week and travel to Paarl to face Boland, who thrashed the Titans by nine wickets thanks to Gavin Kaplan’s 238 and Grant Roelofson’s 150. Seam bowler Glenton Stuurman, who also has a Test cap to his name, took 6/61 in the first innings of that match and looms as a threat to the KwaZulu-Natal side this week.
North West, who defeated the KZN-Inland Tuskers, face the Titans in Potchefstroom and the Warriors head to Pietermaritzburg to face the promoted Tuskers.
“If you look at last week’s results, all the home teams won, which shows we need to make sure we take advantage of our own conditions and comforts,” said Tuskers head coach Ahmed Amla.
Lions squad: Reeza Hendricks, Dominic Hendricks (capt), Joshua Richards, Conor Esterhuizen, Mitchell van Buuren, Richard Seletswane, Evan Jones, Bjorn Fortion, Bevan Swanepoel, Lutho Sipamla, Kwena Maphaka; Tiaan Britz, Delano Potgieter, Siya Plaaitjie, Rafeeq Patel, Khaya Fakude
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