Proteas will respect foes
PROTEAS: FAF AND CO WILL NOT TAKE TOURISTS LIGHTLY
Sri Lankan camp rocked by internal politics.
Sri Lankan cricket has been rocked by internal squabbles and the Proteas are distracted by the World Cup, but South African skipper Faf du Plessis said yesterday he is insisting his team give the tourists the same amount of respect as any top side when the first Test starts at Kingsmead in Durban today.
Sri Lanka have not won a match since October, having just finished a very challenging tour of Australia.
The board showed their displeasure with coach Chandika Hathurusingha by removing him as an on-tour selector and the ICC have made allegations of matchfixing against well-known figures in their cricket. There’s also political interference by their sports ministry, and changes to the selectors and coaching staff have all just added to the uncertainty.
The new selectors, against the wishes of Hathurusingha, have now axed Dinesh Chandimal as captain and left him out of the tour squad, which is extremely inexperienced with eight of the 17 having played five or less Tests.
The tourists have also been struck by injuries as only eight members of the squad that beat South Africa 2-0 in the Test series in Sri Lanka last July are on tour.
“Sri Lanka had a tough time in Australia and there’s a lot happening around the team, but we always respect the opposition and our preparation doesn’t change,” said Du Plessis at Kingsmead yesterday.
“They have very good cricketers in their team and they hurt us by beating us 2-0 in their conditions, so it’s important that we do the same to them.
“We need to make sure we start well and keep them under pressure, and then possibly their breaking point will come sooner because of everything that’s happening outside the team. But we’ll treat them with the same respect as we will a top side.”
The fact that Kingsmead has been asked to prepare a second pitch with more grass on it suggests South Africa will follow the same tactic as against Pakistan of trying to eke out enough runs and then ensuring their potent pace attack bowls the opposition out for less in helpful conditions.
The captain said their options were to go into the Test with no spinner, with a spinner and four pace bowlers and a batsman light, or a spinner and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder as the fourth seamer.
The recent metrics of Kingsmead show that in every Test with an outright result dating back to 2009, a spinner has played a major role with Keshav Maharaj, Moeen Ali, Dane Piedt, Ravindra Jadeja, Robin Peterson, Rangana Herath, Harbhajan Singh and Graeme Swann all picking up a healthy haul of wickets.
“Generally the Durban pitch always allows for a spinner. In a perfect world we would like the option of four seamers, but history suggests we’re going to need a spinner. So one option is to go in a batsmen light and back extreme firepower, or the other is to play Mulder at seven as our fourth seamer. There’s no massive pace though in the Sri Lankan team, so having one batsmen less is not as high-risk,” Du Plessis said.