A quick change may benefit Proteas even on slow pitches

Based on recent history, Aiden Markram was right when he said he was happy with the balance of the Proteas team for the first Test against Pakistan in Lahore.

The tourists decided to choose three frontline spinners, who between them took 18 of the 20 Pakistan wickets in that Test. However, South Africa still lost by 93 runs.

There were no complaints about the conditions at the Gaddafi Stadium, because they were what South Africa had expected.

The Proteas are expecting similar conditions in Rawalpindi next week for the second Test. With Keshav Maharaj, fresh (if that is the right word) off bowling 49 overs for the Dolphins in the domestic Four-Day series, joining the squad and almost certain to start, South Africa will again have three frontline spinners. Prenelan Subrayen, the least successful of the Proteas tweakers in Lahore, is likely to sit out.

But that doesn’t mean Shukri Conrad, Markram and selection convener Patrick Moroney shouldn’t strongly consider adding an extra pace bowler to the line-up.

“It’s hard to say,” Markram remarked when asked about the absence of a second quick bowler in Lahore. “KG bowled really well and didn’t get the rewards he deserved.”

“You’re looking at two big spells with him, obviously the new ball and then a big spell with the reverse swinging ball. He bowled really, really well.”

Kagiso Rababa bowled 24 overs in the first Test, and took two wickets. He was much better in the second innings than the first and as Markram said was deserving of more reward, in both of the spells he bowled.

He had the new ball darting around, and when he returned for the second spell he had the ball reverse swinging, trapping Babar Azam lbw. However, unlike Pakistan, who had the services of both Hasan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi, South Africa couldn’t rely on Wiaan Mulder, who bowled only two overs in the first innings, to assist Rabada.

“We had Mulder, but we felt the ball only reverses for a few overs and then gets softer and reverse goes away.”

Mulder has proved in the West Indies and Bangladesh that in conditions where the surface is slow and the bounce low, his nagging accuracy and control of the reverse swinging ball ― albeit slightly slower than Rabada or Shaheen ― makes him tricky to face.

In South Africa’s second innings Shaheen was superb, taking 4/33, using reverse swing to devastating effect, but as importantly, his height made trusting the bounce off the pitch difficult for the Proteas batters as Kyle Verreynne’s dismissal illustrated.

Watching that spell would have got the South Africans thinking about Marco Jansen. “We’ll see if we can get another seamer in, if we feel it can make a positive difference. We will weigh that up when we see conditions of the second Test,” said Markram.

The ploy to rely on spin is understandable given the recent history in Pakistan. It was in Multan last year, after they’d lost the first of three matches to England, when the home team used industrial fans and stoep heaters to dry out the surfaces to help their spinners.

In the five Tests since, spinners have bowled nearly 85% of the overs, taking 161 of the 191 wickets to fall in those matches.

In fact while the South Africans have not complained about the conditions they’ve encountered, it was interesting to hear the great Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis sound so resigned about the home side’s reliance on spin, while commentating during the first Test.

“I know the World Test Championship is on the line these days, but we have a great history of fast bowlers in Pakistan and we mustn’t discourage youngsters who still want to bowl fast (because of the pitches),” he said.

As for Jansen, fitting him in will be hard. One option would be to drop Tristan Stubbs, who since his second innings century in Durban against Sri Lanka last season has averaged 9 in his next five Tests.

“You can’t win everything. We had plans, but we were on the wrong side of the result,” said Markram.

‘We won’t look too deeply into it. We’ll let bygones be bygones and look forward to the second Test match.”