South Africa and Pakistan clash in two Tests in the sub-continent in the coming days.
Proteas Test captain Aiden Markram is hopeful that having prepared on dry, spin-friendly pitches in Pretoria ahead of their tour to Pakistan will stand the team in good stead when the series gets underway in Lahore on Sunday.
The Proteas will also play a second Test, in Rawalpindi, from October 20, before they head to India for a series there.
Markram revealed this week the team had prepared on pitches with “exaggerated” spin to help get the batters into the best possible form ahead of the series.
Pakistani grounds men are known to go to extreme lengths at times to prepare pitches suitable to their nation’s spin bowlers.
‘Pitches will be same for both teams’
“It was really good at the HPC (High Performance Centre in Pretoria) … they were able to get the wickets to turn quite a bit, exaggerated turn at times,” said Markram, who’ll lead the side in the absence of the injured Temba Bavuma.
“Having that sort of prep might make things a little easier for us in Pakistan. There’s always a lot of spin there and it’s lower from a seam point of view, actually quite skiddy, so it’s hard to emulate those conditions in South Africa, but we’ve done our best and believe we have all the bases covered.”
Markram said the reality was that both teams have to bat on the same pitch so conditions would be equally challenging.
“If it’s your home game you can prepare the pitch however you want … I’ve got no question marks about that from my side. If it’s extreme, it will be difficult for both teams, and as a squad we’ll always back whoever is selected to get the job done.”
Besides Markram himself who can bowl spin, the Proteas’ spinners in Pakistan will be Simon Harmer, Senuran Muthusamy, Prenelan Subrayen and Keshav Maharaj (in the second Test), while Dewald Brevis can also turn his arm over.
“Our spinners offer different challenges for batters, which is a good thing,” said Markram, “and they’re going to play a massive role for us.”
Meanwhile, the Proteas T20 squad, under the captaincy of Donovan Ferreira, take on Namibia in a one-off game in Windhoek on Saturday. Kwena Maphaka has been ruled out of that match, and also the T20 and ODI series’ in Pakistan, which follow the Test series, due to a hamstring strain.
Ottneil Baartman and Lizaad Williams have been called up to that side.
