For many, the Ashes series this winter is the one for England to win, following their drubbing in Australia last time. Yet there is a longer-standing challenge for Joe Root and his Test team to address before that, a series win at home against South Africa, something last achieved 19 years ago in 1998.
That series is the only one South Africa have lost in England since their return to international cricket at the start of the 1990s. Unlike many teams, who travel about as well as a punnet of strawberries, they have proved hardy overseas, the 23 series wins since their second coming (with 11 losses and eight drawn series) the envy of teams not so overtly shaped by politics.
They have achieved it, as most great Test teams have since pitches were covered, with some great, pace-based, bowling attacks playing cricket that has mixed both aggression and attrition. They have had some fine and determined batsmen, like Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten and Hashim Amla, dedicated to batting for long periods, but only AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis have possessed sublime enough gifts to walk among the greats of the game.
De Villiers, though, will be absent from the summer’s tour to England as might be one of their gun bowlers, Dale Steyn. Both, in their different ways, are victims of the wear and tear international cricket can exert – mental in the case of de Villiers (fatigue and changing priorities), and physical, in Steyn’s case, a shoulder injury which necessitated an operation at the end of last year.
Normally, the absence of one or both would boost England’s chances of winning exponentially except that South Africa beat the Aussies recently, in Australia, largely without either (de Villiers was rested while Steyn injured himself during the first innings of the opening Test).
Incredibly, Faf du Plessis’ team were also missing Morne Morkel, though the tall, fast bowler has now returned following a back operation. Instead, an attack of Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott, with occasional contributions from slow left-arm spinner, Keshav Maharaj, had the besting of an Australian team captained by Steve Smith.
This is where it begins to get slightly complicated. Abbott, possibly because he saw uncertainty over his place due to transformation quotas placed on the team and the impending return of Morkel, has now pledged his lot with Hampshire as a Kolpak player, sacrificing Test match champagne for county gruel. England’s batsmen can rest a little easier as a result.
In theory, transformation quotas, which now state that the national team must have an average of six black and coloured players of which two must be black Africans, should have made South Africa vulnerable in the past. But carrying the odd player, as they did with the likes of Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Dane Piedt, who played five and seven Tests respectively, probably made the others in the team assume more responsibility, something which, perversely, may explain the team’s durability.
None of the six non-white players in the team that played in South Africa’s last Test in New Zealand are passengers. Hashim Amla and JP Duminy are established batsmen of class while Tenda Bavuma, the diminutive middle-order scrapper, has shown character and steady improvement. Philander and Rabada are quality bowlers though England’s batsmen can take heart that Philander, who has had stints with four counties, has never taken hatfuls of wickets over here, at least not yet.
Maharaj, the spinner, is not as classy as his quicker colleagues, but then South Africa have made do with utilitarian tweakers ever since their international return 26 years ago.
Although not always discernible from beyond the boundary, South Africa’s brand of cricket has always tested an opponent’s mettle to the hilt.
A Test series against them grinds you down which is probably why, on their last three visits to Blighty, they have accounted for three England captains resigning their posts – Nasser Hussain in 2003, Michael Vaughan in 2008 and Andrew Strauss in 2012.
This time, an England captain of longstanding, Alastair Cook, has gone before they get here, allowing a fresh, if inexperienced, mind in Joe Root to take them on. It might prove the shrewdest decision of the series.
This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper, May 5 2017
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