Over the past few weeks there has been a clear indication that not only Aussie cricket fans but the Australian cricket camp have rediscovered some much-needed confidence in their ability for the longer format of cricket.
A 5-0 whitewash of the English has undoubtedly led to this new-found belief, irrespective of the woes that befell them during 2013.
A few questions remain, however, when you consider the fact that Australia last won a Test match away from home on 23 April 2012 in Roseau, West Indies.
Certainly the return of form for Mitchell Johnson has generated a lot of positivity, as have the batting heroics of Brad Haddin, who ensured the Australian tail continued to wag during the Ashes series.
But instead of looking at the Australians and what they can do to the South Africans, let’s for a moment pretend the Test series will be played in South Africa and the No.1 team will actually have a say about how this series will pan out.
Pace attack
Over the past three years the South African bowling attack has been lethal in home conditions.
Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander in particular were severe in exploiting any weaknesses opposing batsmen may have had, and their figures speak for themselves.
Dale Steyn
Innings: 26
Wickets: 74
Average: 18.64
Strike rate: 41.1
Five-wicket hauls: 6
10-wicket hauls: 1
Vernon Philander
Innings: 20
Wickets: 62
Average: 15.24
Strike rate: 33.7
Five-wicket hauls: 6
10-wicket hauls: 1
Morne Morkel
Innings: 24
Wickets: 36
Average: 29.88
Strike rate: 61.6
The above bowlers will undoubtedly be the main attack Graeme Smith will employ against Australia. If South Africa feel a fourth seamer will be preferable to a spinner, Kyle Abbott will be the likely candidate to add value.
Abbott has only played one Test match due to the unavailability of Morne Morkel at the time and his Man of the Match winning performance brought him a return of 9-68.
His domestic first class career shows he has the credentials with 165 first class wickets at an average of 21.92 and a strike rate of 48.5.
From left field, if the Proteas decide to award form, then uncapped swing bowler Beuran Hendricks might see a call up.
This young man has been in scintillating form over the past year. His 20 wickets at an average of 17.65 and strike rate of 34.4 in the Sunfoil series so far this summer carried over into the current Ramslam T20 tournament, where he is the leading wicket-taker with 21 wickets from eight matches.
Spin bowling
In home conditions Robin Peterson has been passible, even though not the biggest spinner of a ball or the most accurate.
Peterson will most likely make up the spin component for South Africa, with his 10 bowling innings at home since 2011 accounting for 15 wickets at 32.46 with a strike rate of 67.3.
Batting
South Africa will rely heavily upon Graeme Smith, Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and FAF du Plessis to score the majority of runs.
Graeme Smith
Innings: 22
Runs: 708
Average: 37.26
100s: 1
50s: 4
Strike rate: 61.88
Alviro Petersen
Innings: 15
Runs: 545
Average: 41.92
100s: 2
50s: 2
Strike rate: 52.75
Hashim Amla
Innings: 20
Runs: 944
Average: 49.68
100s: 3
50s: 7
Strike rate: 56.79
AB de Villiers
Innings: 19
Runs: 1179
Average: 70.41
100s: 4
50s: 8
Strike rate 59.19
FAF du Plessis
Innings: 9
Runs: 462
Average: 51.33
100s: 2
Strike rate: 46.24
Of concern for South Africa will be the poor form of JP Duminy – if commonsense prevails he should not get a look in.
Both Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw are both in excellent form with the bat and should be given the chance to make their case, regardless of their lack of experience at Test level.
Steyn, Philander and Peterson have contributed decently with the bat in home conditions over the past three years and all average above 25 with bat in hand.
In their past 26 innings at home, South Africa has only failed three times to take 10 wickets – interestingly, they didn’t need a lot of runs to beat teams. In the last three years at home, they only scored a tad over 500 runs per Test to be successful.
This upcoming series will be of high importance to both teams. Australia will want to measure themselves against the current best Test team and validate their dismissal of England as not being a one-off.
South Africa, on the other hand, will want to prove they can remain the No.1 team for some time to come after the loss of Jacques Kallis.
It is important from a South African point of view that the dead wood be cut and promising younger players be afforded the opportunity to establish themselves.
The only way they will continue their reign as the Test cricket No.1 will be with 11 players performing both as individuals and as a team.
Hopefully this will be the opportunity for Australian fans to witness the talent of youngsters such as Abbott, Hendricks, Rillee and de Kock.
felix
Guest
Typical but the Ashes aint fun for quality cricket enthusiasts,this Ashes was weak,Flintoff,Warne,Vaughn,Ponting was way more fun to watch with true competition,Poms are not the most intimidating you'll meet in world sport. Barmy army and co bring lotsa muchas now I get you ;-)
World Traveller
Guest
Who cares if we lose to South Africa. We won the Ashes.
Fafnir
Guest
Well, of course it's hindsight, but that's the point. The perspective of time lets us look back and see that the complete meltdown England suffered in Australia was just coming to the boil in the previous series. England played most of the series with one bowler and one batsman, but still won 3-0. The stuff about England's pitches, like Broad not walking, should really be dropped. It's ridiculous and just sounds like bitter whinging. Trent Bridge was very dry, but it often is. The other four pitches were all good fast bowlers' pitches, particularly Lord's and Durham. Harris took seven wickets at ten runs apiece at Lord's and another nine wickets at Durham. Broad took eleven wickets at Durham. At the Oval spin only took four of the thirty wickets to fall, and even Watson scored a big century.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don't think it will be the last series between Australia and South Africa. That's still a lucrative series. What the recent goings on mean likely is that Australia will almost certainly not be playing any tests against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe or anyone like that anymore at all. They have avoided playing them as much as possible to this point, now it will probably be not at all. In some ways it's probably just making official what's been going on anyway. India basically rules things because they have so much more money than everyone, and they bully other teams in order to get their way. Mind you, someone wrote an interesting article on here recently saying how the other countries had bullied India around and treated them pretty bad in the past, when India didn't have the power they have now, so in some ways maybe it's a bit of "what goes around comes around" in all this.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Maybe, although there is a lot of that said in hindsight. I was just flicking through a cricket magazine that was previewing this Summer's Ashes in Australia and talking about how strong the English team were, especially their bowling attack. Yet after the Ashes so few people gave the Aussies much credit, as if they'd just beaten a team no better than Bangladesh. You are right in that unlike India, or England when they prepare pitches as much like India as possible, South African conditions don't hold any fears for the Australians. In many ways both teams strengths and weaknesses are in the same areas, so conditions that suit one also suit the other. This has lead to this being the one matchup where home advantage means less than just about any other matchup in world cricket.
Fafnir
Guest
If you want to engage in real pessimism/realism, the elephant in the room is that England had all the same problems in England that they had in Australia - Swann's arm was still injured, Anderson was knackered, no third seamer, Trott in hindsight right on the edge with his personal problems, weak top order, two-dimensional captaincy, Prior in woeful form - and Australia got pumped 3-zip. The thing strongly in Australia's favour, though, is that their advantage on home pitches is as strong as India's. Both countries are almost never beaten at home, even when they're in shocking form. The one place with pitches similar to Australia is South Africa, somewhat reflected in Australia's extraordinary record there (and probably SA's win here a year ago).
Beauty of a geek brains of a bimbo(atgm)
Guest
Grt piece bb.nice work mate and hopefully australia will win 3-0
felix
Guest
I know 1 thing,the helmets will be tested,Ribs bruised and broken,fantastic catches taken,scintilating hundreds and fifties. Some big testoterone egos will be deflated to their faminen blush in the media. ;-)
BV
Guest
Don't know why south africa persists with st' georges park, always a test their witch we lose, best test venues in SA are centurion, newlands and wanderers, durban is a indian colony and port elisabeth is a spinners pitch, and we have no spinner, Aus will win their, Sa at centurion and cape town, and with the big three tackeover it is always funny to see that NZ siding with aus on everything, just for a quick buck, with so mutch cricket and rugby and footy in aus it is surprising to see that they have no balls to stand up to india, instead of screwing everyone except themself, eng and india, and NZ wich is like their little dog on a leash
BV
Guest
Don't know why south africa persists with st' georges park, always a test their witch we lose, best test venues in SA are centurion, newlands and wanderers, durban is a indian colony and port elisabeth is a spinners pitch, and we have no spinner, Aus will win their, Sa at centurion and cape town, and with the big three tackeover it is always funny to see that NZ siding with aus on everything, just for a quick buck, with so mutch cricket and rugby and footy in aus it is surprising to see that they have no balls to stand up to india, instead of screwing everyone except themself, eng and india, and NZ wich is like their little dog on a leach
Stellenbosched
Guest
Hi BB, Thanks for an informative article. As a South African I am disgusted by the goings-on in the cricket world right now. Perhaps this is the last series between SA and Australia. CA has thrown their hat in with BCCI for extra short-term income. So it may be better to call this tour off before it has begun. Australian cricket clearly doesn't give a damn about anyone other than England and India. Let them play each other exclusively until nobody bothers to watch.
jameswm
Guest
BBB I thought Morkel was injured? One thing was noticeable with the English tail. Guys like Bresnan and Broad, who are good batsmen for bowlers, had a really hard time. Those "bowlers who can bat" struggled big time with Johnson, who just blasted them out. Someone like he, or Warnie, shows you the difference between proper batsmen and part timers.
Mark Richmond
Roar Guru
I personally fear that we are going to be shown exactly how bad the English were as opposed to how good we are.
Nudge
Guest
Think Du Plesis would bat 6 instead of Haddin with Devilliers taking the gloves which would make it 6 SA 5 Aussies pretty tight still
Australian Rules
Guest
Hard to disagree with that jammel.
jammel
Guest
It's going to be a great series !! Should be vy even - if you were picking a joint XI I make there being 5 RSAs and 6 AUSs…. (Smith Warner Amla Clarke deVilliers Haddin Johnson Philander Steyn Harris Lyon) with a South African in du Plessis as 12th man.
Rugby Reg
Roar Rookie
Wow great stats, shows why they are number one! I do feel this series will be tight, maybe SA will sneek home 2-1 The first test will set the tone, how the aussies come out of the gates will determine their sucess. I feel Mitch's intensity has dropped off lately, anyway our batting is clearly second best, but we always play well in the republic.
Australian Rules
Guest
Cheers BBB. The Australians are very confident of their confidence, and are confidently talking up confidently domianting the series. Hope they deliver!
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Johnners was the big diff, top and tailing the english. I thought England would hold the ashes although I did think Johnson would be effective. The way MItch demolished their top order, I've got no doubt he will do same to SA. He then when on to rip into the tail. Steyn and Philander can bat but they will get same. Australia's batting is dodgy and way less accomplished but it was still enough against England, although Steyn, Vern, Morkel a tougher proposition. Still reckon your boys need to have 150kph De Lange well oiled for when things get nasty.
DR
Guest
Thank you for the write up BB. Really looking forward to this series. Hopefully we will get it over here!