Captain Dean Elgar says selecting a spinner for the first Test against New Zealand in Christchurch, which starts on Thursday, is a “hot-topic debate” for the Proteas.
The pitch at Hagley Oval is known to be fast-bowler friendly, but South Africa may still not field an all-pace attack, with Keshav Maharaj being considered. Simon Harmer is the other spinner in the squad.
However, Elgar has warned his quicks not to let the potentially deceptive conditions affect their performances.
“Sometimes you definitely can get carried away when you’ve seen green grass on the pitch,” he said. “You might then not execute your skills and line and lengths.
“That happens when you think the grass is going to do everything for you and you just put the ball in an area you think is going to give you success. That definitely doesn’t work in those conditions. We need to be mindful.”
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Fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi all excelled in the 2-1 Test series win over India and will be relishing the prospect of bowling to a Black Caps team missing injured captain Kane Williamson and the recently retired Ross Taylor.
“That’s obviously been a success of ours of late. We’ve done that very well from a bowling point of view,” said Elgar.
However, the captain confirmed that the Proteas XI had not yet been finalised.
“Whether to employ a frontline spinner is a hot-topic debate for us. It’s one of our bigger decisions, whether there’s space for one in conditions that aren’t necessarily helpful.
“History has shown that the spinners don’t play too much of a role at the Hagley Oval. So, yeah, I can’t say yes or no just yet. Maybe wait and see what happens at the toss.”
