27 May,2019 04:12 PM IST | | mid-day online desk
Hashim Amla
Hashim Amla is still not a certainty in the South African playing XI but the senior opener has made a case for himself with successive fifties in the warm-up games ahead of World Cup opener against India in Southampton on June 5.
Amla, one of South Africa's greatest Test match players, scored 65 and 51 not out respectively in the two warm-up games against Sri Lanka and West Indies (rain affected) and will be keen to add to his tally of 27 ODI hundreds.
However, with young Aiden Markram in the side, there is competition as to who would open with Quinton de Kock. "Scoring runs is always important. Whether I make the playing XI or not is not up to me. I do what I can do and what happens after that is for the benefit of the team," Amla was quoted as saying by the ICC website.
The veteran opener wants to make every opportunity count and that was the reason he opted out of a domestic T20 competition's knock-out rounds to prepare for the World Cup.
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"T20 is different from fifty-over cricket. I had two weeks with (batting coach) Dale Benkenstein and spent time in the nets batting the way a fifty-over cricketer would bat It was important to have that time. Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn't," said Amla, who needs another 90 to reach 8000 runs in ODIs.
Amla is however open to helping his teammates with vital information and his experience. "It's (guidance) something you don't try and force. It happens naturally. It's not something I consciously think about but I think it happens anyway. There's a lot of experience in the playing XI and the coaching staff so that osmosis of information and knowledge is going to happen anyway."
In an interview a few days back, Hashim Amla revealed that he is hungrier than ever before to do well in the World Cup 2019.
"I am hungrier than ever before, there is no doubt about that. I have been blessed to have this shirt for a while but the time off has made me want to come back stronger. "This is my third (World Cup) so I know what it is all about. I have a strong record in England and I have always enjoyed coming here."
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