Johannesburg – The Titans will gain a top-class bowler but lose a leading batsman when they host the Warriors in Wednesday's domestic T20 game at Willowmoore Park in Benoni.
While Morne Morkel will enjoy his first outing in Titans colours this season and provide a welcome boost to the bowling department, the franchise has decided to give Faf du Plessis a rest in line with stipulations from the national selectors.
“Faf is not playing - Cricket South Africa has requested that the batting line-up for the Test side be given a week's break at some stage so he's taken his week off after the Cobras game,” Titans coach Rob Walter said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We should have him back for the weekend.”
Although Marchant de Lange is physically fit, the Titans have elected to give him more time to become match ready.
After experiencing defeat for the first time in the domestic T20 series on Saturday, the Warriors have resolved to improve their cricket during the power play overs.
Having won their first two games of the competition, the Warriors went down to the Cape Cobras by 18 runs and captain Davy Jacobs had no trouble pin-pointing where they had gone wrong.
“We just started badly with the ball,” Jacobs said.
“They got off to a flying start and we were basically chasing the game from then. When we came to bat, our first six overs were also not great.
“We've obviously spoken about the power plays as being something we need to improve on, because we finish well with the ball and we've finished well with the bat.”
With Colin Ingram still out, the Warriors were likely to maintain an unchanged side for the match. – Sapa