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Australia will begin their tour of South Africa with the first Test match of the three-match series at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Wednesday. Follow the action live from 7.30 pm AEDT.
To call it a much-anticipated series will be underplaying its importance.
Much like what was thought before the start of the Ashes, this is expected to be a closely-fought one and that it is only a three-match series is bit sad.
That said, the machinations of the copious amount of cricket that gets played today makes it pertinent that both teams are at their best going into the first Test match. A slow start will make things difficult for the team going down 1-0 after the first game and that’s something both South Africa and Australia will look to avoid.
In that sense, South Africa seemed to have planned it well.
Knowing their tendency of not starting off as well as they would like from a number one team, South Africa organised a three-day match against a Composite XI consisting of those on the fringes of national selection.
More than the result itself – and the national side were four wickets away from winning it easily – South Africa would have looked to get into a rhythm of playing in the longer format of the game. It was on the lines of getting a bowler to bowl four overs in the nets on the morning of a game before walking out to a match situation.
On the other hand, Australia were hamstrung by the weather in Potchefstroom, where they were to play their lone practice game.
Such were the conditions in the town that the game was abandoned a day before its start and the Australian side moved to Johannesburg to use indoor and outdoor practice facilities to get into the groove.
Speaking of which, the Aussies have suffered another issue – the fitness of a few of their players leading up to this game would have been the cause for concern.
First James Faulkner was ruled out of the tour. Moises Henriques had to be drafted in.
Shaun Marsh followed soon after with an injury to his calf and Phil Hughes was named a substitute.
Shane Watson reached South Africa but complained of a calf niggle, which means they were without two of their all-rounders. Marsh, in the mean time, had miraculously recovered from his fitness woes and was named on the flight to South Africa, joining the side quite late.
In short, going into this first Test, Australia are without George Bailey – who wasn’t selected because of his poor form – and Watson from the team that played all five Tests against England.
In their place, Australia could bring in any two out of Henriques, Hughes, Marsh or Alex Doolan.
Of course there are other variations that can be thought of as well, with captain Michael Clarke going as far as revealing this in his pre-match press conference:
“There’s three options: six batters, three fast-bowlers, and ‘Lyono’ [Nathan Lyon]; five batters and the all-rounder in Moises [Henriques]; six batters and four fast-bowlers – no spinner and use myself and Steve Smith for that.”
As much as they would want to play horses for courses, it would be difficult to see Australia not play Lyon for this one. Not all Australian pitches during the Ashes series assisted spin and yet, he finished with 19 wickets in the five games.
He could well be the edge that Australia have over South Africa, with Robin Peterson being the hosts’ representative in the slow bowling department.
There’s another question on where will everyone bat – Doolan and Marsh seem more suited to the number three spot, while Hughes and Henriques will prefer the number six position.
In short, it does look unlikely that both Doolan and Marsh will make it to the 11, as it does that both Hughes and Henriques will start.
South Africa have a question-mark over one spot; who will replace the now-retired Jacques Kallis?
Their options range from Ryan McLaren to Wayne Parnell – both all-rounders – with an outside chance of the side wanting to go in with an extra batsman or bowler alone. Dean Elgar or Rory Kleinveldt could take over that freed up position in that case.
Faf du Plessis will move up to the number four position in place of Kallis, sandwiched between Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers in the order. JP Duminy has a lot to prove in this format in recent times, given he has scored just 99 runs in the last four Tests at an average of 16.
However, he could take confidence from the fact that his highest Test score of 166 came against Australia in Melbourne after he had earlier hit a match-winning unbeaten half-century in their chase of 414 in the first Test of that very series.
Join me for this opening day of the first Test on Wednesday and you can follow the live score of this game from 7.30 pm AEDT and post your comments below.
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