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When Hashim Amla fronts up to the Highveld Lions in the Cobras’ opening game of the T20 Challenge today, the burden of proof that has always stalked his career will weigh heavily as he twirls his bat in anger for the first time since March 1.
With April 18 – the day of the Proteas’ World Cup squad announcement – writ large with a big red X in every would-be squad member’s calendar, Amla has five games to put up the kind of performances that will help convener of selectors Linda Zondi sleep a little better as he tries to separate the veteran from the two pups snapping at his heels, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks.
The good news is that Amla, who turned 36 a week ago, has been at home having to prove himself right and his detractors wrong for every one of the 15 years he’s been an international player.
Anyone who has followed the raging debate about whether Amla should be included in the World Cup squad or not will be keenly aware that the argument in the batsman’s favour has been conducted from atop the massive pile of international runs he has scored.
Every one of the 9 282 test runs has been a blow against anyone who has ever suggested that twirling back-lift wouldn’t be conducive to an international career, while his 7 910 one-day international (ODI) runs – achieved at the kind of lively click almost designed to make a point – rested his case against everyone who typecast him as a five-day grinder.
The bad news is that Amla’s responses to his critics have been less emphatic over the past couple of seasons. While he has scored runs, they have not been weighty and have only been accumulated sporadically.
A prime example is the 108 not out he scored in the first of five ODIs against Pakistan in Port Elizabeth earlier this year.
Those runs, in a total of 266/2, were – uncharacteristically for Amla – not for the team as he had already begun playing for his World Cup place.
As a result, the Proteas easily lost that game – Pakistan’s victory with five balls to spare suggesting the hosts’ total was a few runs short.
The vast majority of people who have watched Amla play throughout his career would love for him to show the selectors enough over the next five T20 games to go to England.
But the catch is that even if Amla were to be picked on the strength of his run-scoring history and whatever glimmer of form he shows over the next 11 days, his history at the World Cup doesn’t encourage his selection.
In the two World Cups he has been to, Amla has not scored runs to win South Africa a game in a must-win match.
Not only does this feed into the recurring narrative of Proteas greats becoming mortals in knockout tournaments, it also begs the question of how he is suddenly going to discover a killer instinct his history hints he hasn’t had when his powers are waning.
The other big concern over Amla this international season has been his catching.
While he may never have had the athleticism to roam the outfield in his pomp, Amla always more than made up for it with safe hands in the slips.
This season, even the safety of those hands has been eroded, with Amla spilling more catches than he has caught, and his partners in the slips cordon have been lunging in front of him in a display that screamed a lack of trust in his catching.
With the illness of his father well documented since he had to curtail his game time over the past five weeks, Amla could ironically find something other than proving his detractors wrong to play for.
One never knows how players react to these things, but Amla could either play for his father or be distracted by his illness.
And, as ever with Amla, there could be another option.
When he felt his stint as Proteas captain wasn’t working out, he simply walked away from the job for the good of the team.
Who’s to say he won’t end the debate around his going to the World Cup by ruling himself out?
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