Levi has failed to make an impact throughout the World Twenty20

South Africa opening batsman Richard Levi’s performance with the bat throughout the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 has been shoddy at best, and it has steadily become an increasing concern for the national team coaching staff.

Former South African batsman Peter Kirsten believes that if Levi continues failing as an opener, the national team will have an extremely tough time of finding a replacement for him.

Speaking exclusively to ESPNcricinfo, Kirsten said: “I really feel for Richard Levi actually, he seems to have a small technical fault, he tends to play across the line early on and of course everyone expects him to hit boundaries every second ball.”

Levi made a name for himself in the Twenty20 format after hammering New Zealand for 117 runs in February, which ties the record for the highest Twenty20 score.

To make things even more special, Levi broke West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle’s record of the most sixes hit during an innings with 13.

Since then, many of the domestic Twenty20 teams have been reaching out to Levi, but it seems as if his innings may have been a one hit wonder as he has only scored two half centuries since making his 117 against New Zealand.

Now that most of the international bowlers have realised that Levi loves to play on the leg side, they tend to bowl more deliveries outside the off stump to him, and this gets him into a lot of trouble since he constantly wants to work the ball into the leg side.

If Levi wants to keep his place in the South Africa Twenty20 side, then he has to learn to play more conventional cricketing strokes and not look to clear the boundary off every other ball.

“Bowlers have worked him out now, Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis have shown that if you play good cricket strokes, you can still score quickly,” Kirsten said.

Kirsten also noted that he wanted to see Amla open the batting and have Kallis come in at third.

“That for me would be the right way to go,” he said.

The other option left for the South African selectors would be to drop Levi completely and have Amla and Kallis open the batting, while either AB de Villiers or Francois (Faf) du Plessis move up to the third spot.

Du Plessis splashed onto the international scene after having an excellent Indian Premier League (IPL) season with the Chennai Super Kings, and while he has stated that he would like to open the batting for South Africa, he said that he would do as he was told for now.

However, du Plessis failed to convince the selectors about his form in the recent limited overs series against England, as he only managed to make 39 runs in six innings.

Kirsten believes that du Plessis has areas of his game which need a lot of work, but as of right now, that should not be a major concern for South Africa.

“As AB de Villiers said, he knows what Faf du Plessis can do, we’ve seen him clean up games, finish off games in domestic cricket. If he just plays a little bit straighter, gets those hands going through mid-off a little more, then he can fill that No. 3 spot as well,” Kirsten added.

Since South Africa constantly mix up their middle order, Kirsten feels that it is of vital importance for the team to have two opening batsmen that have the ability to make a strong start to the innings.

South Africa started to mix up their middle order after receiving criticism that they were too predictable, but Kirsten believes that having some aspect of predictability will help the team more and more in the future.

“After all the chopping and changing, I’m sure Gary Kirsten, Andrew Hudson and AB de Villiers will know exactly who they want to pick for the first game,” Kirsten said.