The Proteas will be without pace spearhead Dale Steyn in Wednesday’s third Test against India in Nagpur.
Steyn has been battling with a groin injury he picked up during the first Test against the Indians in Mohali, which resulted in him being unable to bowl in the second innings after sending down 11 overs in the first.
The World’s No 1-ranked bowler sat out the rain-affected drawn Test in Bangalore, and it was hoped that he would recover in time for Nagpur, where he was the stand-out player with the ball with 10 wickets in the Proteas’ previous Test in the central Indian city in 2010.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced in a statement on Tuesday that Steyn had failed a fitness test on his injured groin.
Now Proteas captain Hashim Amla, coach Russell Domingo and selection chief Linda Zondi will have to make a big call with regards to the balance of the starting XI, particularly the bowling attack without Steyn – whether they should pick two specialist spinners (Imran Tahir and Simon Harmer) and two seamers, or just the one spinner, considering that JP Duminy and Dean Elgar can chip in as slow bowlers.
Despite a spin-friendly track being expected once again, Amla hinted that they might call on their pace bowlers to play a big role, which may see Morné Morkel being joined by both Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada.
“Though the spinners have taken most of the wickets on the sub-continent, Dale’s record here is phenomenal, there is nobody better than him,” Amla said in the same CSA statement. “The seamers who are going to play definitely have a role, and certainly our spinners are growing and getting better and better.
“We are 1-0 down so it is certainly a must-win match for us to stay in the series (with just one additional Test to play in Delhi). It does allow us to play with risk, but that is the mentality that we came here with, we came here to win the series. In the first match we had five front-line bowlers and for me, that’s an attacking option, we need to take 20 wickets to win the Test match.”
But at the same time, it was the batting line-up that let the Proteas down in the 108-run defeat in Mohali. The world’s best batsman, AB de Villiers, was the only South African to get a half-century in the three innings in the series, and he needs much greater support from the likes of Amla, Faf du Plessis, Duminy and Dean Elgar.
Amla, whose highest score on the current Indian tour is 43, will hope to emulate his 2010 Nagpur performance, when he scored 253 not out as the Proteas clinched victory by an innings and six runs.
“We haven’t played our best Test cricket,” Amla said. “If you look back to Mohali, I’d say we were in the game for three innings of the four. If India got bowled out for 200 and us for 187, it’s a fair reflection that the game was well poised up until the last day, which we didn’t do too well in.
“On the first day of the last Test we didn’t bat well at all, so we haven’t put in free-flowing Test cricket performances that we are used to. It will be great for a start if in Nagpur we can get on to the field and put in the performances that the South African team is used to.”
* The third Test starts on Wednesday at 6am South African time and will be broadcast live on SuperSport channel 202, with ball-by-ball coverage also on Radio 2000.
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