Primed to perfection or undercooked - have the Proteas done enough?

Excitement is building around the final of the World Test Championship and quite rightly so.

The Proteas finished top of the table to qualify for the Lord’s showpiece, where they will face Australia for the right to be crowned the best Test side in the world.

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It’s a hugely prestigious game to be playing and an opportunity for South Africa to win a coveted ICC trophy. You can’t help but wonder though, if South Africa have prepared ideally for the game.

Let’s start by saying that the Proteas are a great team. In the words of wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne: “What Shukri and Temba have created is incredible. They encourage each of us to be ourselves, and I think it has brought out the very best of us. Shukri basically told me that he and the coaches backed me. That backing just gave me so much confidence, and allowed me the focus on my job.”

But while things like building confidence, visualisation and team spirit are very important, so too is time in the middle. And more specifically, time in the middle playing (in this instance) Test cricket.

Perfectly primed?

Aiden Markram.

As South Africa head into the one-off encounter against Australia the last time they played a Test was the New Year’s encounter against Pakistan at Newlands. That was a great game which saw the proteas win by 10 wickets on the back of a Ryan Rickelton double-ton, but that was also more than six months ago. Since then, the Proteas stars have gone their separate ways, most of them spending their time playing T20 franchise cricket in SA20 and IPL.

A handful have been playing cricket in England, but even so, the bulk of the early season county action has been with the white ball. While Test cricket has come a long way in recent times, it is still a different game to the short-form stuff. In Test cricket the contest between bat and ball is more even, and batsmen need to be a lot tighter with their strokes. It takes time to switch from the crazy strike-rates of T20 to the more attritional fare of Test cricket.

The Proteas have had just one warm-up game in the lead up to the WTC final. They played Zimbabwe in Arundel between 3 and 6 June. It was a solid enough preparation with South Africa posting a score of 313 for two declared in a rainaffected match. Five Proteas batters ‘retired hurt’ with Rickelton, Temba Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs all making it past 50.

Zimbabwe didn’t get much chance with the bat as they faced just 11 overs with Kagiso Rabada grabbing the only wicket to fall.

No doubt it was a good run out in English conditions, but is it enough? What would people say if the Springboks went into a World Cup final not having played a Test for six months with just a single friendly against Namibia by way of warm-up? Obviously, Rugby World Cups work a little differently to the World Test Championship, but the truth is, this is as big as it gets in the world of cricket. Test cricket is the pinnacle of the game, which means South Africa are competing for the ultimate prize.

Or undercooked?

Kagiso Rabada.

Opening batsman and Proteas white-ball skipper Aiden Markram was positive about the preparation, saying he was feeling good and looking forward to the game. “I’m feeling good. I feel like I’m moving well. The IPL is obviously a completely different format, but it was nice to come into a game feeling good. I’m pleased to be in that headspace at the moment and when you’re feeling like this, it’s really about cashing in and trying to make a difference for the team,” he said.

Australia’s preparation has been no better, which is good news for South Africa. In fact, by all accounts, they haven’t even played a warm-up game together since arriving in England. But that doesn’t mean that Australia should be underestimated. The Baggy Greens are the reigning WTC title holders and have not lost a Test against South Africa since 2018. Australia have also played Test cricket a bit more recently than South Africa, their last outing was against Sri Lanka in February.

Bavuma and his team will have their work cut out for them at Lord’s. They have plenty going for them, but let’s hope that when it’s all over they are not left ruing coming into the encounter undercooked.

Primed to perfection or undercooked – have the Proteas done enough?

Perfectly primed?

Or undercooked?

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