South Africa and Australia square up for a much awaited four Test series in March-April 2018 with the first Test starting at Durban on first March.
Australia had characteristically announced their squad pretty early with skipper Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner leading a strong and well balanced side. South Africa have also announced their team.
Here is my preview of the series where I look at the relative strengths and weaknesses from the aspects of batting, bowling, fielding and wicketkeeping.
Batting
The Australian batting looks good. Steve Smith is enjoying a purple patch for the last four years with 22 tons in his last 83 innings.
In the recent four-nil win versus England, Smith scored 687 runs at137.4. More importantly he played as per the demands of the situation.
In a stressful situation at Brisbane he scored his slowest Test hundred, and at the WACA he scored his fastest Test ton in just 138 balls on the way to his highest Test score of 239.
(Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)
Smith followed this up with yet another ton at Melbourne. Three Test tons in a series was awesome and he had also done the same feat in the tough away series to India. The Australians will be hoping South Africa is a happy hunting ground as well for their skipper.
Australia would however look forward to other top order batsmen like David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja and Peter Handscomb to contribute and help Smith. Bancroft had a stunning Ashes debut in which he scored an unbeaten 82 to partner Warner who scored 87 not out for a 187-run opening stand and a ten wicket win.
Thereafter he did not do well, but he has the backing of Steve Smith and Justin Langer and should feature as opener versus the South Africans.
Faf du Plessiss is nursing a finger injury as is middle order batsman Temba Bavuma. However both are in the squad. Du Plessis is one of their best players against Australia ever since he announced his arrival at the world stage with a match saving Test hundred on debut and South Africa would want him to be fit.
South Africa will also hope AB De Villiers and Hashim Amla rise to the occasion. Their opening pair of Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram will play a crucial role if South Africa hope to do well.
In the recent three Test series South Africa played five batsmen and five bowlers and if they continue the trend then they may hand a debut to young 20-year-old batting allrounder Wiaan Mulder who has impressed Otis Gibson.
Bowling
In the Ashes Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood all bowled with venom and pace and consistently exceeded 145 kmph. Smith will hope they maintain their fiery attitude.
Importantly Cummins is an excellent lower-order batsman too who averaged 40 versus England. He can potentially be a leading all rounder for Australia in future.
The spinning options for Australia are off-spinner Nathan Lyon and left arm spinner Jon Holland. Both are just 30 and yet are Australia’s oldest bowlers. This shows how young a side it is. While Holland is unlikely to play, Lyon is a pivot and is expected to play an important role in the series.
(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
South Africa’s pace attack is even more potent even though Dale Steyn has been ruled out of first two Tests due to injury. However Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada will all be looking forward to the series and contributing majorly.
These four played against India and it was the first time since Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Colin Croft that any team played a four man pace attack with all four bowlers taking more than 100 Test wickets each. Steyn will be replaced in the quartet by Lungi Ngidi.
The 21-year-old quick had immediately impressed with his 6-39 against India in which he touched the 150 km mark and also got disconcerting pace and bounce. These four bowlers will Test Australia.
Possibly South Africa may also play three of the four quicks and play the allrounder Mulder and the spinner Keshav Maharaj who is a competent batsman as well. This will rotate the fast bowlers and keep them fresh.
Playing Mulder and Maharaj will strengthen the batting as a mark of respect to the Aussie attack without compromising the bowling as well. Maharaj incidentally is the only spinner in the history of Test cricket who debuted at Perth and he was instrumental in picking up three wickets resulting in an Aussie collapse.
This will definitely encourage SA to play Maharaj at home against Smith’s boys.
Fielding
Both sides are known for their electrifying fielding. Uncharacteristically South Africa had too many fielding errors in the recent series versus India and their coach Otis Gibson accepted that this may have been an important factor for the ODI and T20 series loss. South Africa would hope to improve on this aspect.
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Wicket-keeping
The Australian selectors pulled a rabbit out of the hat when they played Tim Paine versus the Englishmen and he responded well.
He will play all the Tests for the Aussies. South Africa have a dilemma. Should they play the out of form Quentin De Kock – who ironically has an excellent record against Australia – or should they play the in-form Heinrich Klaasen? Klaasen is fresh from his match-winning exploits against the Indians in an ODI and a T20 where he was like a breath of fresh air for the South Africans who were otherwise outplayed by the Indians.
Fergus
Roar Rookie
clearly you never watched Warners debut hundred or Khawaja play. I'd take one warm up match on a decent pitch against decent opposition then the absolute roads against club sides some touring teams have been receiving.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
yes DavSA it is very important as to what the SA think tank will come up with and how they approach the series. I am looking forward to the series. It will be great Test cricket
Matt H
Roar Guru
The great thing about Aus vs. SA series is that they are usually a 50/50 proposition at the start of each series. Smith or Amla? Elgar or Warner? Rabada or Starc? Morkel or Cummins? Mouth-watering stuff. I'm not sure whether we will see the green tops that many are expecting. SA is in the middle of a continuing drought, and for Cape Town in particular this has reached desperate levels. India did not play there. They may not have the capability (or it might be pretty unpopular with the locals) to prepare that sort of pitch.
Ouch
Guest
Too close to call I reckon. SA may have the advantage initially as their players are not long off playing Tests whereas the warm-up game was the first long form game for a while for Oz. Can't wait. Tahs and the cricket team both playing in Durban this weekend
AREH
Roar Guru
Exactly, nothing surer than green pitches for the most part; probably similar to the one they dismantled India on. They don't have to look back too far to note Australia's frailties on such wickets, either. Having seen Australia crumble against them in recent years; the 85 in Hobart just over a year ago, and the debacle that was 47 all-out in the 2011 series in RSA. Efforts like being rattled for 60 and 136 in the most recent UK Ashes don't help their case either.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I can't see them going for anything other than a greentop. They know how big Australia can go on flat pitches - Warner, Khawaja, Smith and S Marsh would all lick their lips. If it's a seamer I think you almost take Warner and Khawaja out of the equation. Warner can still score but he will be a lot more circumspect, while Khawaja has a pretty ordinary record against the moving ball. It would put enormous pressure on Smith to shoulder the batting. I also don't think our bowling attack is suited to seaming pitches. Only Starc really pitched the ball up in the practice match and he isn't a seam bowler. I'm worried we will bowl too short to make the most of any lateral movement on offer. On another note, playing just one warm-up game for a 4 test series between two of the top 3 sides in the world is madness.
Paul
Roar Guru
I hope SA believes as you do that they have a superior bowling lineup. Ngidi has had a very good start to the international scene but lacks experience while Rabada shows it won't take much to stir him up, to the point where he does something stupid. It's hard to know how in or out of form their batsmen are after the bowler friendly India series, but SA must be worried it only has a couple of guys who they can expect to make runs, given recent performances. If the pitches are have way decent, Australia could get on top in this area. Any way you look at it, this series is really between to very closely matched sides, so hopefully we'll see some great contests.
DavSA
Guest
Everything boils down Ritesh to how SA intend to play this series. We hold the cards. Scenario 1 : SA will play a full house of seamers and ask the groundsman for a green top. Unlikely as Aus can fight fire with fire . Scenario 2. SA will go with a traditional Kingsmead wicket which requires patience , interrogation by the bowlers and favours the batters. This seems to be the most possible set up as Morkel and Philander in particular would do well . But....Australia have a super track record on this type of Durban pitch. It then comes down to the batsmen. A complete u-turn from the India series. Amla loves Durban , Smith is a problem for us and truthfully I do not know how the heck it is going to pan out.