The Proteas’ six-wicket first Test defeat to Australia can be attributed to a few factors including an unruly pitch and a potent Australian bowling lineup. However, this isn’t the first sign of cracks in the batting lineup.

The Proteas have failed to register more than 180 runs in their last six Test batting innings. Adding scores of 99, 152, 118, 169 and 151.

Their side has also been bowled out for less than 200 runs 12 times since the start of 2020.

“The batting lineup that we have is quite inexperienced,” said stalwart bowler Kagiso Rabada, excusing the efforts of the batters.

“In fact, the team that we have is relatively inexperienced in comparison to other cricketing nations around the world.

“Dean Elgar is our most experienced player followed by myself and Temba [Bavuma] and I’ve only played 50-odd Test matches. Everyone else hasn’t played much.”

Rabada admitted to feeling “frustrated” by the constant lack of runs put on the board by the Proteas’ batters.

“It can get frustrating as well. When I say frustrating, I don’t mean to single out the batters. I mean it’s frustrating as a team. You have to understand that sometimes this is what happens in a rebuilding phase.

“We understand that no one is going out to the centre of the wicket looking to throw their wicket away.”

Rabada has reasoned the lack of international experience in the batting lineup as the main reason for South Africa’s struggles with the willow.

And the team won’t get many opportunities to build extensive experience with no three-match Test series on the horizon for the Proteas in the next five years, according to the Future Tours Programme.

Outside of Elgar (80) and Bavuma (52), the rest of South Africa’s batting lineup contains only 41 Test caps between them.

“Now with the situation we’re faced with, there’s just a whole lot of [new] players that have come in. They have the ability, but they need to get used to the international circuit,” said Rabada.

“There needs to be an element of patience and understanding but at the same time, you can’t be advocating for bad performances. However, we’re quite positive.”

Kagiso Rabada of South Africa bowls during day two of the First Test match between Australia and South Africa at The Gabba on 18 December, 2022 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo: Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Fight

Australia — a team whose top four all average over 45 (Travis Head, batting at five averages 44.5) — only scored 253 runs in the Test match, while losing 14 wickets.

In most other circumstances, that effort would be rewarded with victory. But the South African bowlers simply did not have enough runs to play with.

Despite that, the Proteas’ bowlers, Rabada in particular, never gave up the ghost, making the Australians sweat for every run they manufactured.

“The one thing we possess as a South African team — and something South African teams always possess — is that we will never go down without a fight,” said Rabada.

“Although Australia needed 34 runs — getting a lot of stick from the crowd — we came out here to play, it doesn’t matter what the situation is, we’ll always go down fighting and that’s what we try to do out there.

“The one factor is belief, you have to have belief. If you don’t have belief then I don’t think we’d be able to produce performances like we have in the past.”

South Africa will need that belief in bucket loads to have any hope of achieving a positive result in the two remaining Test matches in Australia.

The Proteas need to win at least one match in order to stand a chance of making it to the World Test Championship final in July.

The first Test defeat means South Africa have now lost three matches on the bounce and have moved down to third place in the standings with India creeping up ahead of them.

Changes

South Africa put all their proverbial eggs in one basket in the first Test match, going gung-ho with their strength — their bowling — as they elected five bowlers and only six batters.

The four-pronged pace attack — along with the assistance of the pitch — ensured Australia were bowled out for only 218 in the first innings and crawled to their meagre victory total of 34 with four wickets down.

However, when five bowlers are selected, one bowler will naturally be under bowled. In Brisbane, that was the case for the usually reliable Keshav Maharaj who only turned his arm over for two overs in the match.

And while skipper Elgar has, in the past, expressed his desire to always have the option of a spin bowler in his lineup, South Africa currently do not have the luxury of playing with only six batters.

“I think all options are available at the moment. They are all on the table, don’t get me wrong,” Elgar said regarding the makeup of the side in the second Test match.

“But I think you have to go away and give your batters the confidence and the positivity.”

The Proteas have the option of Theunis de Bruyn on the bench who could help lengthen the batting lineup. De Bruyn remained with the squad in Australia despite his wife expecting a baby back home in South Africa.

Heinrich Klaasen, who was originally selected in the squad as a reserve wicketkeeper for Kyle Verreynne, is also coming off good form with the willow — having struck a career-best 292 for the Titans in the four-day domestic series prior to the trip to Australia.

However, skipper Elgar has assured that caution will not be thrown to the wind in the second Test, on Boxing Day at Melbourne.

 He acknowledged that the pitch and the quality of Australia’s attack played a big role in their batting capitulation in the first test.

“I think the guys in the changing room have played enough cricket to know that this was maybe one of the incidents where ‘let’s be honest and let’s be real about what’s just happened’, and it’s not like our guys were just throwing their wickets away,” said Elgar

“We were getting jaffered out, and they [Australia] bowled properly.” DM