All the signs are there that South Africa will choose the same team at Edgbaston that they picked at Lord's and Headingley.
The Proteas' management, which is very strong on consistency of selection and role definition, also believes that this may be the strongest team that Graeme Smith has captained. That's all well and good, and South Africa are, after all, one up in the series.
But, as the tour match against Bangladesh A gets underway at the New Road ground on Friday, it would be no bad thing for coach Mickey Arthur and Smith to give some more thought to the identity of the team's spinner on Wednesday. They will have three days to observe a bowl-out between the two men vying for the position.
Continues Below ↓
Paul Harris, the tall Titans left-arm spinner, has been disappointing on the tour thus far, commentator Geoff Boycott was positively rude about his perceived lack of quality.
He has played in every match so far, but his runs to wickets ratio has certainly favoured the batsmen. Altogether he has captured seven wickets for 383 runs, but, more importantly, he has rarely threatened the batsmen.
To be fair to him, the pitches at Lord's and Headingley offered him neither the turn or, more importantly, the bounce, that he needs, and it has to be born in mind that England spinner Monty Panesar has hardly been a raging success himself. Earlier this week, assistant coach Vincent Barnes said he was concerned about Harris's lack of confidence.
If he is to be chosen for the third Test, it is important that he ups his performance levels against Bangladesh A this weekend, not least because the Edgbaston pitch may be a touch on the dry side, meaning that it could be the first pitch in the series to offer something to the spinners in the later stages.
There will also be concern about Harris?' clumsy fielding and the fact that his competitor for the position, Robin Peterson, is clearly the superior batsman in the number nine position.
Peterson' Test record, it has to be said, is hardly a glittering one. He has only taken 14 wickets in six Tests, going back to his debut against Bangladesh in May 2003.
His best return of 5-33, and his first Test five-for, came in his last match against Bangladesh in Chittagong in February this year after Harris was forced to pull out of the tour through injury.
Four of the Bangladesh top order Peterson bowled against then will be playing this weekend at Worcester. Perhaps that fact will bring him happy memories and inspire a performance that will give the Proteas' selectors a problem.
There's not much to choose between Harris and Peterson when you compare their domestic firstclass performances last season.
Harris captured 20 wickets at 32.15 in eight matches while Peterson got 24 wickets at 33.87 in 10 matches.
Harris may be the man in possession, having received the backing of the team management, but he needs to start repaying their confidence now with some more persuasive performance.
- This article was originally published on page 20 of Daily News on July 25, 2008
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
