Sri Lanka versus SA pits established pace against a new breed
● Someone old, someone new, someone borrowed, someone blue. South Africa’s pace attack for their test series in Sri Lanka might have been assembled at a wedding.
Vernon Philander, though he’s neither the eldest nor the most experienced bowler in the squad, is someone old — in gravitas, nous and presence.
Lungi Ngidi is someone new; fresh of face and attitude and a good kid — and bowler — to have around.
Someone borrowed is Dale Steyn: borrowed from the injuries that have threatened to derail his career.
That leaves someone blue, who in no way is Kagiso Rabada, the heir apparent to Philander and Steyn as a wicket-taking force for years to come.
But one of the four quicks could end up feeling blue because of Sri Lanka’s heartless conditions, which have prompted the selectors to pick three spinners: Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Shaun von Berg.
Legspinner Von Berg looks a long shot to crack the nod and earn, at 31 and after 96 first-class matches, his first test cap.
There would be no such surprise should Maharaj and Shamsi — both left-armers, the first orthodox the other not — be in the XI Faf du Plessis reveals at the toss in Galle on July 12.
Steyn selects himself, and for far more reasons than the fact that he is three wickets away from surpassing Shaun Pollock as South Africa’s champion bowler. What message might Pollock have for him as the milestone looms?
“Let’s just let him break the record and I can congratulate him,” said Pollock, who when he was South Africa’s captain offered a similarly laconic comeback when the late, invariably garrulous Peter Robinson asked him why he always gave the same answers at press conferences: “Because you reporters always ask the same questions.”
But the pressing question for South Africa in Sri Lanka has indeed changed.
It isn’t whether Steyn is a great bowler. That was answered many years and wickets and a couple of broken shoulders ago.
It also isn’t whether Rabada is good enough to succeed Steyn as, to turn the latter’s words against him, the head of South Africa’s snake. We already know he is.
In all of test cricket, only two quicks have claimed more wickets in their first 30 tests than Rabada’s 143. And they could bowl a bit: SF Barnes, who took 189 in a career of only 27 matches for England, all played on uncovered pitches, and Waqar Younis, who had 169 after 30 tests.
What we need to know, with Steyn, 34, Philander, 33, and on the cusp of South Africa’s first series since Morné Morkel’s retirement, is who’s next into the annals after Rabada?
How about this guy: “Everything that’s happened is what I’ve wanted to happen. You’ve got to be ready for it, but to be able to come back and perform was one of my main goals. It was about coming back and showing people that, even with a back injury, I can move past it and become a great cricketer … some day … hopefully …
“[When you’re injured] you’ve got time to sit and reflect on everything, and just get in touch with yourself as a person. Mentally I’m a lot stronger and physically a lot of work was done. So, in all aspects, I think I’ve become a better person and a better cricketer.”
Ngidi, for it is he, describing what it’s like to prove himself all over again after being sidelined for four months last year, is a study in maturity.
It’s a bonus that he has taken 14 wickets in three tests, but that matters more than anything. A bloody good bloke and a bloody good bowler: maybe some marriages are made in heaven.
Let’s just let him break the record and I can congratulate him
Shaun Pollock
Record holder for most wickets taken for South Africa