Proteas Blessed with “Best Fast Bowling Stocks in the World,” says Coach Piet Botha

With South Africa's fast bowling stocks increasing as the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen, now joined by the fit-again Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee and Lizaad Williams, Proteas bowling coach Piet Botha is encouraged.

Widening Bowling Stocks

The Proteas Test bowling stocks have never looked as fiery as they do at the moment.

Apart from the quicks that played in the World Test Championship final at Lord's last month, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen, other established quicks are lurking in the background.

Anrich Nortje, though, is currently nursing an injury, has expressed his desire to return in whites again and that alone makes the bowling unit even stronger.

However, there are also Gerald Coetzee and Nandre Burger, a duo which is able to crank it up to the 150 kph mark on any given day.

Coetzee and Burger are already tried and tested fast bowlers in Test cricket and their availability means that South Africa has arguably the best fast bowling stocks in world cricket at the moment.

Lizaad Williams is also returning from injury and alongside him there are the fast bowlers who are currently competing in the ongoing Zimbabwe Test series, namely Kwena Maphaka, Codi Yusuf and Corbin Bosch.

Looking at the available bowling stocks, Proteas bowling coach Piet Botha admitted that the country is in a very good position to rotate the fast bowlers according to conditions and workloads.

"We're very blessed. You mentioned all those names. We're in a fortunate position. They are all good fast bowlers, some of them have already made their mark at the international level," Botha told SportsBoom.com. 

"I think the good thing about it is that with all the cricket South Africa is going to be playing over the next 12 to 24 months, that's a good place to be in."

"Like on this tour, we've got some of our best bowlers who played in the final who are not here, getting replaced by some guys who were playing the first game and then actually stepping up and actually making that group even bigger. It's very, very encouraging."

Kwena Maphaka's Progress

South Africa beat Zimbabwe by 328 runs in the first Test and heads into the second and final Test on Sunday looking to secure a 2-0 series whitewash.

Mphaka, 19, will be looking to have a fruitful Test having had a quiet first Test where he went wicketless.

Botha highlighted that the youngster will grow in leaps and bounds following the experience he has gathered in the first Test.

Look, it's always about a bowling unit, so sometimes someone doesn't get wickets, it doesn't mean he, you know, he didn't contribute," said Botha.

"One of the messages was that he needs to be aggressive. I thought he was really aggressive, so he did a good job in that respect."

"So, for him, it's just to put his mind to good practice again this week, good preparation and then, you know, do what he does well, and that is to bowl quickly."

"We had a couple of discussions around various things for him to improve on, but we'll, that's also part of the progress for him."