Ken Borland

Proteas coach Mark Boucher says realistically it is going to take a while before South Africa are a top-class Test outfit again, but he is hoping his young team will play a streetwise and bold brand of cricket when they open their series against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.

Between the ‘Big Five’ of former captain Faf du Plessis (65), Dean Elgar (63), Quinton de Kock (47), Temba Bavuma (40) and Keshav Maharaj (30), there are 245 Test caps; the rest of South Africa’s expected starting XI will have just 38 caps, 20 of which belong to Aiden Markram.

Asked what his aspiration for the series was, Boucher said “I just want us to start winning and play a good brand of cricket. But we have to be very realistic, it’s difficult to stamp your authority when you’ve only played one or two Tests because players need to feel secure in their positions. A guy like Faf has a massive role to play in driving the way we want to play.

“If the seniors in the team can take the ‘risks’, so to say, almost show them the route, then the youngsters will see that and follow. We want to play aggressive but smart cricket. A guy like Quinton de Kock is naturally aggressive and we’ll bat him at five, a position where we feel he can be the most dangerous. The opposition will know they have to bowl the right lines to him,” Boucher said on Thursday.

While Boucher confirmed that the team will make “a meaningful gesture” in support of Black Lives Matter before the Test match, it is clear that he is being kept very busy trying to ensure the Proteas hit the ground running against Sri Lanka as they look to turn around their poor recent Test record, which stems from the 2-0 loss at home to the islanders in early 2019.

“I didn’t watch a lot of that series to be honest, but chatting to the guys a couple of them do have scars from it. The important takeaway is that we can’t just coast into this series. We have a young team, we are rebuilding but we are in conditions that will suit us. The important thing is for us to focus on what we can do and not worry about Sri Lanka. If we can hit our straps early on then we have a very good opportunity to win. The guys just want to get out there and play because that is the best way to improve yourself.”

Speaking about worry, Boucher admitted that there was some concern over the fitness of pace bowlers Lungi Ngidi and Glenton Stuurman.

“We have a couple of niggles which are a bit of a concern especially since they are bowlers. Lungi has not been feeling great and Glenton has a bad bruise. But both came through training today with flying colours. The idea was to push them two days before the game and if they wake up feeling good on Christmas Day then they will be available for selection,” Boucher said.

Anrich Nortje has marked himself out as being a cricketer of tremendous heart ever since he made his Test debut in India last year, but the 27-year-old knows a lot of his success in the Test series against Sri Lanka will depend on him getting a little help from his friends.

Nortje has played just six Tests and taken 19 wickets at an average of 35, but those figures are skewed by his analysis of one for 179 in the two Tests on flat pitches in India. In South Africa, he has taken 18 scalps in four matches at 27.11.

Lungi Ngidi, although he made his Test debut 18 months earlier, has only played five Tests, with 15 wickets at 25.06, and with the third paceman almost certainly a debutant (Glenton Stuurman most likely), it is anyone’s guess who is going to be the so-called ‘leader of the attack’, but Nortje and Ngidi are favourites to share the new ball against Sri Lanka in the first Test at Centurion from Boxing Day.

“We actually had a meeting on Wednesday about bowling in partnerships, we have a very inexperienced attack and it’s important for us to stick together. Against England I felt like I was quite good at that, especially when Dwaine Pretorius was bowling at the other end. One of us would control things and the other would focus on taking wickets. It’s about understanding what you have to do in that moment and not thinking ahead too much.

“Generally you’re trying to bring the run-rate down so you frustrate the batsmen and force them to play a shot they should not have played. Conditions also play a role but it’s mostly about the run-rate. I’ll be trying to keep to the basics and keep things as simple as possible. There’s definitely going to be a bit more bounce and pace at SuperSport Park, but we must not get carried away,” Nortje said on Thursday.

Nortje said he has been impressed by the uncapped Stuurman and would enjoy bowling in partnership with his fellow Warriors star.

“Glenton is a very good bowler with lots of control and skill. We actually haven’t played a lot together but having seen him in the nets, it’s clear he has a lot of talent and he can really trouble guys, especially at Centurion. He asks lots of questions and, without labelling the guy, he can sort of fulfil the Vernon Philander role.”

Having taken the Sri Lankans away from the lower and slower coastal pitches on which they won 2-0 in 2019, the use of the short ball is obviously going to be a key weapon of the Proteas. But Nortje said it is important that they do not overdo the delivery.

“We try and see from every angle what we can do against certain batsmen and conditions are going to be different for them this time around. If someone is uncomfortable against the short ball then he will definitely get it  a lot, but if they are comfortable then we won’t bowl it as much,  although they will still get some. So much depends on the conditions and where the batsman is scoring well.

“We definitely want to use the extra bounce and pace to our advantage, but we mustn’t get carried away and go into the Test thinking we are just going to bomb them out. At SuperSport Park there’s obviously that extra bounce, but you also get cracks later on and that’s obviously exciting from a bowling perspective. We have had a good couple of days of training and we have tuned our game,” Nortje sad.

While the Covid Lockdown was obviously a major blow to businesses, for Aiden Markram it was a time to clear his mind and he said on Wednesday that the Proteas as a whole are hoping to bring clarity of thought to the serious business of their Test series against Sri Lanka which starts at Centurion on Saturday.

South Africa’s Test form has been dismal ever since they suffered the shock 2-0 loss to Sri Lanka at home in early 2019 and Markram’s own fortunes also plunged at the same time. Both team and player have identified the need to start from scratch again in the longest form of the game.

“We’re excited to get back in the whites again and start playing good Test cricket. We’ve touched on what happened last time against Sri Lanka and at the end of the day our skills were not up to scratch, we did not perform well enough to win. It’s about performances on the board, that’s how you get results, and for the batsmen there is an individual responsibility to go really big and put the team in position to win.

“We haven’t done that enough in Test cricket lately and we need to do that from the start, it’s about hitting the ground running. Personally, I feel my performances certainly have not been good enough over the last 18 months and I am playing for my spot again so I need to score a lot of runs, get some big partnerships going so we can put big runs on the board.

“The biggest help of Lockdown was that it allowed me to clear my mind. I played a lot of cricket while I was struggling and when you’re out of form everything seems rushed and there are just so many games coming thick and fast. So I had clouded thoughts, but Lockdown allowed me to slow down and touch base with what worked in the past,” Markram said on Wednesday.

And the 26-year-old certainly seems to be back in the right frame of mind as Markram goes into the Test series as the leading batsman, in terms of average (77.71), in domestic four-day cricket, having scored three successive centuries.

It would be stupid for the Proteas to ignore such hot form and Markram is likely to join the same top six, with the exception of Rassie van der Dussen coming in for the retired Hashim Amla, that disappointed against the Sri Lankans in 2019.

Markram said as long as the batsmen don’t go on any crazy flights of fancy out of their individual game-plans then they should be able to re-establish themselves as a solid unit.

“It’s about spending time at the crease, batting time. A lot of it comes down to how good your game-plans are and how long you can stay in that plan. You need to stay in your plan for as long as possible, always looking to be positive, but if they don’t bowl bad balls then you have to be disciplined enough to not chase things. It comes down to what the conditions are and what the bowling attack allows.

“Hopefully there will be a few bad balls that we can put away and if we operate at a good intensity then we will be able to put away those bad balls when they come. The Sri Lankan attack is mostly similar to last time and they were certainly a handful, but we have put plans together to hopefully combat them this time. We need to bat long periods and put them under pressure,” Markram said.

South Africa are desperate to put right their humiliating 2-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka the last time they toured, and seven of the players who were involved in that 2019 embarrassment look set to get the chance to start the series off on the right note at SuperSport Park in Centurion from Saturday.

After the entire 17-man squad who entered the bubble at Irene Country Club returned negative Covid tests on Tuesday, it is now apparent that the two members of the original Proteas squad who are positive for the virus are Beuran Hendricks and Keegan Petersen.

The unfortunate Dolphins batsman Petersen, who is averaging over 50 for his third successive domestic four-day campaign, was probably next in line in terms of the batting line-up, and may even have made his Test debut if South Africa decided to go with seven specialist batsmen.

Left-arm paceman Hendricks will consider himself equally unlucky as he took five for 64 against England the last time South Africa were in the field in a Test match and has taken 12 wickets at an average of 20 in three red-ball games for the Imperial Lions this season.

Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock were all part of the batting line-up that failed to meet expectations against Sri Lanka in 2019 and are likely to play again in the first Test from Boxing Day, but Rassie van der Dussen, who has scored three half-centuries in his four Tests, looks the right fit at number three having scored a brilliantly-judged 98 against England in his last Test innings.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher showed his preference for having a genuine all-rounder in the No.7 position by playing Dwaine Pretorius in three of the four Tests against England, but the Lions stalwart has only just returned from a hamstring injury and Wiaan Mulder, who played one Test against Sri Lanka in 2019, has been in fine form with the bat for the same team.

The absence of Hendricks, who played in the last Test against England because Kagiso Rabada, now injured, was suspended for once again getting in the face of batsmen while celebrating their dismissal, opens the door for Warriors seamer Glenton Stuurman to make his Test debut.

Stuurman has taken 42 wickets in 12 matches for the Warriors but he is highly-rated by the Proteas management, who see him as being in the same mould as the recently-retired Vernon Philander. Stuurman certainly seems to have the same knack of bowling some incredible deliveries to get batsmen out and the only other pacemen in the squad who are competing to join Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi in the starting line-up are also uncapped players in Migael Pretorius and Lutho Sipamla.

Considering that South Africa have chosen a specialist spinner in their squad for their last five Tests at SuperSport Park, all of which they have won, it is likely left-armer Keshav Maharaj, another survivor of the 2019 Sri Lanka series, will play, not least of all because he is the team’s most experienced bowler.

Titans fast bowler Lungi Ngidi should be right at home in familiar conditions and Anrich Nortje, who has taken nine wickets at 25.77 in three red-ball matches in Centurion, is likely to join him in the starting XI.

Proteas squad: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Glenton Stuurman, Lungi Ngidi, Dwaine Pretorius, Migael Pretorius, Lutho Sipamla, Sarel Erwee, Raynard van Tonder, Kyle Verreynne.