South African pitch doctors fear Aussie pace attack

Pitches are hard to read, but all indications are the South Africans will avoid any fire in the deck for fear of the Australian pace attack.

Australian captain Steve Smith expects the first Test to be a batting grind

Pitches are hard to read but all indications are the South Africans will avoid the fire and spice of the decks prepared for the recent series against India for fear of the Australian pace attack.

Australia will go into today’s first Test in Durban with an unchanged side from Sydney, and the thought of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins running rampant on green tops worries the locals.

The Kingsmead wicket is nicknamed the Green Mamba after the venomous tree snake common to the area and legend has it the pitch at the seaside venue comes to life at high tide.

When the Australians were last here, in 2009, there were sessions where the wicket turned from sedate to serpentine. Mitchell Johnson broke Graeme Smith’s hand and split Jacques Kallis’s chin in one unforgettable session on the second day of that match.

South Africa enter the four-Test series looking a little unsettled. Dale Steyn is injured. Captain Faf du Plessis, wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock and batting star AB de Villiers are returning from injury. Morne Morkel announced on the eve of the match that he was pulling up stumps at series end. They have named allrounder Wiaan Mulder and back-up keeper Heinrich Klaasen should either be needed.

Australia have the luxury of emerging unscathed from a 4-0 Ashes win. The hosts won their Test series against India 2-1 but lost the last Test. A slapping in the short forms followed.

All Australian batsmen, with the exception of David Warner, spent time in the middle during the three-day tour match in Benoni. All the bowlers blew out cobwebs and did what was necessary. Whether it is enough time will possibly depend on the results of the first Test but it is all the time they had.

England complained about a lack of preparation for the Ashes despite two warm-up games and a top-up after the second Test.

Warner’s early form will be closely monitored but any criticism, if it comes, will be tempered by the fact he was turning out for his country as captain of the T20 squad.

Australia’s captain Steve Smith was not surprised by the look of the Kingsmead wicket. “I thought that they’d go with quite slow wickets or maybe green wickets,” he said. “One of the two. I didn’t think they’d have a great deal of pace.

“Looking at the wicket now a couple of days out, it looks like it could be quite slow, maybe not a great deal of carry, but I’m terrible at judging wickets, so it’s just about summing it up when we’re out there and adapting to whatever we’re dealt and identifying it quickly and making sure we’re doing everything we need to do on our feet quickly. The first Test match is so important, so you don’t want to be behind the eight-ball early in this series.”

South African opener Dean Elgar believes the Kingsmead pitch will be “low and slow”, noting the wicket had changed over the years.

Indications are the locals will go with four quicks — Vernon Philander, Morkel, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi — an approach favoured by coach Ottis Gibson.

Former Australian and South African Test player Kepler Wessels told Cricinfo that conditions had been curious this summer but with the first three matches at coastal venues he expected a cautious approach from the locals.

“Because they are all coastal venues, just how much of an impact those quick bowlers will have is uncertain,” he said. “The series may well be decided by who bowls the best and who is most successful under the conditions.

“Against India there was an ­effort to contrive surfaces, to a ­degree, that gave South Africa’s pace attack an advantage. This time because of the strength of the Australian pace attack I don’t think South Africa can afford that to happen because if you lose a toss against that Australian attack, you could be in trouble.”

Wessels, like Elgar, believes the character of South African wickets may be changing.

Smith seemed in a good place ahead of the Test and confirmed that the same side that played in Sydney would take the field in this match.

The squad is even more comfortable knowing that Peter Handscomb, who was dropped after two matches in the Ashes, is back in good form and ready to go should they need him.

“It’s nice to have that,” the captain said. “I think our squad together now is a really good squad. Even the guys that aren’t playing have been training exceptionally well. Peter got a hundred before we came away in Shield cricket and averages 47 in Test cricket, so I think it is showing us that we’ve got a good side.

“Having said that, we’re going to have to be up for the challenge here I think. South Africa are a good cricket side and we’re going to have to play well if we’re going to beat them.”

Smith has a perverse fascination for attritional cricket and is preparing himself for that tomorrow.

“This first Test match I think the average first innings score’s around 270-280, so it could be quite a hard grind and playing the long game as much as you can and toughing out difficult periods and just being on top of every run. Every run could be crucial,” ­he said.

“Just being all over that and making sure we start well with the first Test of the series.”

Both sides are slugging it out after gruelling schedules in the summer.

“No doubt throughout the series guys are going to have some sort of fatigue set in,” Smith said. “But it has been a long summer and every Test back home went five days ... but in the end you’re playing for your country and you find ways to get yourself up.

“You don’t need too much motivation when you’re playing for your country.

“It’s just going to be about helping each other out and making sure that if guys are feeling fatigued someone else will take the load for a bit and just trying to share that as much as possible and make sure we can keep each other as fresh as we can be.”

Peter Lalor is covering all four Tests for The Australian from South Africa