Trial by spin awaits Proteas on their Pakistan sojourn, with the squad simulating spinning conditions during.
South Africa prepare for spin-slaught in Tests against Pakistan.
Expect a trial by spin for South Africa as they touch Pakistan shores for a 2-test series.
When South Africa starts defending their World Test Championship (WTC) crown in Pakistan later this week, they expect a lot of spin, and stand-in captain Aiden Markram is sure his team is prepared.
Some members of this South African team participated in a two-Test series in Zimbabwe in June and July, while others attended the county championship. However, they haven’t played red-ball cricket together since the last WTC final in June. They attempted to mimic the home edge Markram feels Pakistan has every right to exploit during their primary preparation, which took place over the past two days at a training camp in Pretoria.
Markram on the conditions
“If it’s your home game, you can pretty much prepare whatever wicket you’d like to prepare. That’s how I see it,” Markram said ahead of the team’s departure on Monday. ” Ultimately, if it’s going to be extreme like it was in the English series, then it’s going to be difficult for both teams from a batting point of view. For us as a squad, we’ve just got to be happy with what we have, whatever the conditions look like and to back whoever it is on the day to get the job done. So I’m not too fussed by it.”
Markram’s allusion to “the English series,” which was held in Pakistan at this time last year, brings back memories. Pakistan lost the first Test match, but won the next two on square pitches after drying them off with windbreakers, industrial fans, and heaters. Rawalpindi and Multan hosted such games. In Lahore and Rawalpindi, where spin claimed 29 of 31 wickets in the England Test, South Africa will play.
“There’s three pitches that are spinning quite a bit and two out of those three are really exaggerated,” Markram said. “The one that’s a little bit in between is still sharp spin but slightly easier to bat on. And then we’ve got one strip in the middle as well where it’s pretty normal. We try to keep it as dead as possible but it’s not always that easy, just to have the ball squat a bit low. It’s difficult to do that on the Highveld, but we’ve tried our best. We’re trying to tick all the boxes.
South Africa’s spin resources
Senuran Muthusamy, a left-arm spinner, and offspinners Simon Harmer and Prenelan Subrayen are among the members of South Africa’s spin-heavy team. Keshav Maharaj, South Africa’s preferred spinner, won’t be included in the team until the second Test, when they will have four spin specialists.
“They’re all quite different. If you look at the two off-spinners to start with, Simon and Subs, especially having faced them now where it is spinning, it’s two completely different challenges they throw at you. That’s something great to have as a squad,” Markram said. “You don’t really want similar types of spinners. They are each quite different, different paces, different types of spin in terms of side spin and overspin and stuff like that, which reacts differently off the wickets. They’ll play a massive role for us there if what we’re expecting is going to be the case.”