Bosch is the name. Bosch, Corbin. Neither Tertius Bosch nor Eathan Bosch. It might be hard to break away from the group when your father played Test cricket and your brother is playing in the SA20 like you. The group from Bosch.
However, Corbin Bosch is doing well. He was positioned for his own spotlight after taking a wicket with his maiden ball in a Test match and scoring 81 not out against Pakistan in Centurion in December.
He hasn’t stopped there, either. In the first Test match against Zimbabwe last month in Bulawayo, Bosch took 5/74 and scored an undefeated 100. He then claimed 5/65 in the second match. He took 2/16 against Zimbabwe in a Twenty20 International on Sunday in Harare.
In Twenty20 Internationals, sixty-four men have bowled seam for South Africa. In an innings where they bowled all four of their overs, only 15 of them had an economy rate lower than Bosch’s 4.00.
Ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February and March of next year, these are effective strategies to garner interest. When the team was chosen for the US and Caribbean competition last year, Bosch was not mentioned in the selection process. Now he is.
The fact that South Africa won the WTC final against Australia at Lord’s last month and advanced to their sole senior men’s final in the 2024 T20I edition despite their respective head coaches, Rob Walter and Conrad, handling all of the selection didn’t sit well with the suits.
The choice to go back to a panel of selectors is perplexing and out of date. The only positive outcome of that foolishness is that convenor Patrick Moroney, a true cricketer, was named last week. He is scheduled to join on August 1.
In his role as single selector, Shukri Conrad took Bosch to a global level. However, if and when something goes wrong, the head coach will no longer have complete control over the composition of the team for which he will be held accountable.
“That’s out of our control,” Bosch said of the board calling back the past. “As cricketers, our goal is to play every time we get an opportunity. It’s important to put your best foot forward. If anyone’s speaking about it it’s background noise. In the set-up no-one’s really speaking about it.”
When Rob Walter left, Conrad was promoted to all-format coach. “Shuks is looking for the most effective pairings. In order to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup, he is working to improve.
“This is his first white-ball series as head coach, so I think he’s also trying to find his feet. But he’s meticulously planning how he wants to go about it and how he plans to set up his team. He’s doing a good job so far and everyone is buying into his plans,” said Bosch.
