South Africa confident of chasing down WTC final place

DHAKA: South Africa are confident they can chase down a spot in next years World Test Championship final, even if they must win four of their remaining five tests in the current two-year cycle, coach Shukri Conrad said on Friday.

South Africa moved up to fourth in the 2023-25 WTC standings after beating Bangladesh by seven wickets on Thursday in the first test in Dhaka and will qualify for the final at Lords next June if they win four tests over the next months.

They start the second test in Chittagong on Tuesday and then return home for two test series against both Sri Lanka and Pakistan later this year.

“We’ve got to have a good chance. You’ve got to fancy your chances back home,” Conrad told a virtual press conference. “We came to Bangladesh as underdogs, and we got a really good result and probably go into the next test match having firmed slightly in the odds. But when we get back home, we start as favourites to beat two teams from the subcontinent in home conditions.

“We need to start playing like favourites as well. It’s probably easier playing as an underdog, but I think we’ve got a good little thing going here with this unit, but we’re certainly not going to get ahead of ourselves in any way,” he said.

South Africa’s youthful side has played infrequent Test cricket over the last 24 months but showed their potential by winning in the West Indies in August.

India and Australia, who contested the last WTC final last year, top the standings for next years final with Sri Lanka in third spot.

The top two teams in the standings, which will be finalised early next year, decide the one-off final.

“Obviously you’ve got lofty goals that you set yourself and we all want to get into a final or maybe I should change that … we all want to win the World Test Championship,” said Conrad. “But we do know that hard graft is going to have to be done along the way.

“We’re certainly not going to be building any sand castles, or have any pie in the sky, but you’ve got to allow yourself to dream as well, and then give yourself a chance of realising that dream.”

BAVUMA OUT OF SECOND TEST

Meanwhile, South Africa are delaying the return of captain Temba Bavuma from injury and he will sit out the second Test against Bangladesh. Bavuma missed the win in the first test in Dhaka but had travelled with the team looking to continue his rehabilitation and take his place in the side for the second match.

“Yesterday was always going to be the day when we were going to make the decision based on his medical condition,” Conrad said. “There was a program that he was following, but we didn’t wait for the results. We just feel medically, he is not going to be ready for the second Test, and we will tone down the program so that he can be ready for the Sri Lankan series.” Bavuma sustained a soft tissue injury in his arm while batting in South Africa’s 174-run victory in the second One-day International against Ireland in Abu Dhabi earlier this month. The same injury sidelined him for a lengthy period two years ago.

“His absence is a setback,” added Conrad. He is our best Test player but we know that we are able to deal with setbacks.“

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2024