South Africa’s depth face up to Australia’s power-hitters as Travis Head returns to add more batting firepower.
Australia’s six-hitters to challenge South Africa’s depth.
When South Africa wrote a new chapter in their history by winning the World Test Championship, there was a bit more stake in the result when these two teams faced off at Lord’s a few months ago. This series serves as a major prelude to the upcoming international competition, the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February.
T20 mode is in effect for both teams. The return of Travis Head has further bolstered Australia’s batting power, which was evident in their recent 5-0 sweep of the West Indies. Meanwhile, South Africa participated in a tri-series in Zimbabwe and lost to New Zealand in the final with an experimental squad.
Along with getting more games for players like Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Dewald Brevis, and Kwena Maphaka, this trip also continues to explore South Africa’s depth and potential options ahead of the World Cup. A few key players have returned, most notably captain Aiden Markram and pace leader Kagiso Rabada.
“Zimbabwe [T20I tri-series] was a valuable exercise and we obviously want to build on the good things in particular the form of our two young batters and someone like Kwena as well to continue to grow his stocks in T20 cricket,” coach Shukri Conrad said.
With Josh Hazlewood returning, albeit probably with his workload controlled, and Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc continuing to recuperate ahead of the home summer, Australia is making a bewildering comeback to their all-format quicks. But Nathan Ellis’ performances are making people wonder if it’s time to divide up the big three in this structure for good.
The fact that international cricket is returning to Darwin in Australia’s Top End for the first time since 2008, when Bangladesh was the visitors, is another noteworthy feature of the first games of this series. The first game sold out, and Tuesday’s second is expected to follow suit. The city is a likely host of a Test match against Bangladesh next year as Australia’s home season extends into the northern summer.