Heinrich Klaasen miss 1st clash of champions trophy due to left elbow injury vs Afghanistan

CSA confirmed that Heinrich Klaasen had been ruled out "as a precautionary measure due to a left elbow soft tissue injury" for South Africa's Champions Trophy matchup with Afghanistan on Friday afternoon in Karachi. Neither Tristan Stubbs nor Heinrich Klaasen were on the team sheet. Stubbs might not have been a good choice for the first team. South Africa, who won the toss and asked Afghanistan to field first, still had a formidable-looking batting line-up, with Ryan Rickelton and Tony de Zorzi up top, and Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram and David Miller in the middle, and the allrounders Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen at seven and eight. However, Klaasen is one of their major players and their primary ODI performer. He had scored scores of 86 in 97 balls, 97 in 74 balls, 81 in 43 balls, and 87 in 56 balls in the most recent of the four ODIs he had played in the past few months, all of which were against Pakistan: one at home late last year and the other in the tri-series leading up to the Champions Trophy. From 54 ODI innings, in which he has scored 2074 runs and struck at 117.44 runs per innings, his overall average is 44.12. Crucially, keeping the venues of the Champions Trophy in mind, Klaasen has a strike rate of 125.31 against spinners in ODIs since the start of 2020, all while averaging 57 runs-per-dismissal against that kind of bowling. Among 97 batters to have faced 500-plus balls of spin in this period, Klaasen's strike rate is the highest and comfortably better than the next best - Rohit Sharma's 111.59. South Africa will likely face at least 20 spin overs against Afghanistan in this match, with Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, and Mohammad Nabi among the frontline bowlers. The next Champions Trophy match between South Africa and Australia is on February 25 in Rawalpindi.