Vincent Barnes, manager of South Africa’s high performance centre, is excited about the upcoming series between the Proteas and Pakistan and predicts that the real challenge for the visitors will be to cope with the threat posed by the home team’s fast bowlers.
The first Test of the three-match series begins from Friday at Johannesburg. The Test series will be followed by two T20s and five One Day Internationals (ODIs).
South Africa are presently the number one ranked Test team of the world, having done exceedingly well over the last couple of years. Graeme Smith and company, after their historic victories over England and Australialast year, are high on confidence and will surely start as favourites against Pakistan.
The visitors, on the other hand, have also been consistently playing well in all formats since the disastrous tour of England in 2010. They have been able to form a very nice combination and have not tinkered too much with their Test team. However, doing well on hard and bouncy South African pitches will be a stern test of their mettle.
Barnes, who was in charge of the South African Invitation XI, which played a first-class match against the tourists, feels that Pakistan’s batting will be tested against the likes of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.
“The big battle between any team coming up against the current South African one will be between their batsmen against the South African bowlers,” he expressed.
Apart from Pakistan’s openers, Nasir Jamshed and Mohammad Hafeez, their batsmen struggled to deliver the goods in the four-day match, although Misbah-ul-Haq and Sarfraz Ahmed scored valiant half-centuries.
Barnes further added that players of the class of Younis Khan and Azhar Ali cannot be underestimated.
“It looked like they were just trying to occupy the crease and then some of them got good balls and got out,” Barnes said. “We can't judge too much on that. Guys like Azhar Ali and Younis Khan have scored big runs in the past. Jamshed looks like a guy whose natural game is to play his shots and Hafeez is a quality player who scores both sides of the wicket.”
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