Will the Proteas be bold with their attack?
SOUTH Africa have always been happy to drop their spinner.
Heck, the Proteas have gone to the sub-continent, stared at a pitch that screamed ‘pick another spinner’, selected just one spinner and then had that one spinner bowl 81 overs out of 185 in a Test match.
Keshav Maharaj did get a little bit of help at the SSC in Colombo in 2018, with Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram sharing 19 overs.
South Africa’s post-isolation philosophy has been to back their quicks, even when the conditions aren’t suitable. So, it is no surprise that in that same period, the Proteas have never started a home Test with two front-line spinners.
However, might history be made at Kingsmead this week? Elgar, now captain, wasn’t giving much away on Monday. The usual platitudes were trotted out: looking at conditions, all options on the table, nothing is set in stone …
Elgar mentioned the need to take 20 wickets in a way that works for South Africa. What has worked is the fast bowlers, be they Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel or lately Kagiso Rabada.
Spinners hold up an end or give the quicks a break ... they aren’t generally the primary wicket-takers.
The two Tests against Bangladesh are at Kingsmead and St George’s Park – the latter traditionally an ally of spinners, while the former has in recent years shed its ‘green mamba’ cloak and become a brown, dusty haven for the spinners ... Maharaj among them.
If as Elgar hopes the ground staff are able to leave some green on the surface at Kingsmead and get it hard, South Africa may yet stick with what they are comfortable with in terms of the composition of the attack. If not, then Maharaj and Simon Harmer could make history.
Whichever way the South Africans go, Bangladesh won’t be bothered. They arguably have the best set of fast bowlers to emerge from that country currently, and as they showed in the One-Day series, really enjoy bowling on bouncy tracks.
The surfaces in Durban and Gqeberha, should they play as they have in recent years, won’t be foreign to them and, in fact, the kinds of plans usually utilised in the sub-continent – bowling stump-to-stump for the quicks, while the spinners do the bulk of the work – would likely be the way to take 20 wickets.
That is something Bangladesh are very comfortable doing.
In Maharaj and Harmer, South Africa have two very experienced and top-class spinners. Harmer was the leading wicket-taker in the domestic Four-Day series, taking 44 wickets, with three five-fors and one 10-for.
He last played a Test six-and-a-half years ago, since then he has starred for the English county side Essex and was so successful that at one point he and the English cricket authorities were thinking he might play for them.
There is still a way for SA to play three seamers – Lutho Sipamla, Glenton Stuurman and Duanne Olivier – and both spinners, which would create a balanced attack and sufficient options over the course of five days, although a case might be made that the batting is a bit light, in which case Wiaan Mulder may replace one of the seamers.
If the conditions remain true to what we’ve seen in Kingsmead recently, then hopefully the Proteas choose the bold and, for them, unusual option in playing both Harmer and Maharaj.
Too often we’ve seen them take the easy way when they don’t feel a spinner is necessary, so it would be nice to see the same, just in reverse. If it spins, the Proteas can still win.
SQUADS
South Africa: Dean Elgar (capt), Temba Bavuma, Daryn Dupavillon, Sarel Erwee, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Duanne Olivier, Keegan Petersen, Ryan Rickelton, Lutho Sipamla, Glenton Stuurman, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo.
Bangladesh: Mominul Haque (capt), Abu Jayed, Ebadot Hossain, Khaled Ahmed, Litton Das, Mahmadul Hasan Joy, Mehidy Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Nural Hasan, Shadman Islam, Shakib Al-Hasan, Shoriful Islam, Shohidul Islam, Tijul Islam, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed, Yasir Ali.