“We’re winning away, we’re winning awaaay! How shit must you be? We’re winning away,” goes the familiar chant that rings out across football terraces when a plucky visiting team does a job on a more favoured host. In Test cricket, a foreign win is just as novel given their infrequency between top nations – look no further than the Ashes or the Border-Gavaskar Trophy clashes this century. Except, that is, when South Africa and Australia are involved.
Since the Proteas’ readmission in 1991, Australia has visited seven times and never lost. Likewise, the last three times the South Africans were tourists down under, they walked away handsome victors. The most recent of those wins, 15 months ago, was punctuated by Australia rolling over for 85 on the opening day at Hobart. That crisis was the catalyst for five changes to the team, and the chairman of selectors losing his job.
By any measure, it is a far happier Australian side landing for this clash. Steve Smith has declared that they will name an unchanged XI from those who capped off a four-nil hiding of England in January. In doing so, the captain acknowledges that fatigue is a factor with the series coming at the end of a taxing season, but not an excuse. “It has been a long summer and every Test back home went five days,” he said. “But in the end, you’re playing for your country and you find ways to get yourself up.”
To combat that, Smith was party to a careful management exercise through the white-ball season, taking two sorely-needed weeks off when the one-day series didn’t go as planned. “I was very drained,” he said. “It got to the point where I actually didn’t want to pick my cricket bat up for a bit which is very rare for me; I just love batting.”
That he does. Whether the good times keep rolling for him will surely have the biggest influence on whether unusual the streak between these teams continues. For added motivation is the fact that the only winning away series Smith has led was his first against New Zealand in 2016.
In support, his deputy David Warner left the corresponding contest four years ago with the player of the series gong for a peerless return of 543 at 91 with three tons. He is the one man who hasn’t rested, but it doesn’t dent his confidence that he can leave another telling mark.
The last time Usman Khawaja batted for Australia he lashed a century, and in his most recent start against South Africa he did likewise. Shaun Marsh was on that first trip with Khawaja in 2011 and again in 2014, where he also reached three figures in elegant fashion. This time, the left-handers are senior players with expectations to match. Tim Paine too, who was selected with equal rancour as Marsh for the Ashes but left with his reputation similarly enhanced.
As for Mitch Marsh, a year ago he was statistically the least effective number six ever to play. But with a pair of breakthrough centuries against England, he has never looked more capable. It’s a story arc that his state teammate Cam Bancroft would do anything to replicate, the one Australian who finished the Ashes under pressure. The lure of sticking with a winning team did its bit to save him; now he has to offer a return on that investment.
Any jolt of excitement Australia’s quicks experienced watching India’s tour of South Africa on some of the liveliest pitches in modern memory have been quelled, reports emerging that the locals have asked for these tracks to be anything but spicy. Smith isn’t surprised. “I didn’t think they’d have a great deal of pace,” he said after inspecting the Durban surface that carries a tame reputation. “It looks like it could be quite slow.”
That’s a scenario Pat Cummins is used to since returning to the national fold this time last year, which has done little to slow him down. It’s a nice quirk that he is, as a result of his celebrated debut at the Wanderers in 2011, the sole Australian fast bowler to have played a Test here.
New ball pair, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, were both given their chance to recuperate after Ashes toil, the former stating that he is fully recovered from a heel injury sustained in Perth in December. The quartet is complete with Nathan Lyon, who begins the series ten wickets away from becoming the sixth Australian to claim 300. It is a long way from his first tour here in 2011, and further away again from the home series against them in 2016 where he came within a Steve O’Keefe calf strain of losing his place in the team.
For many of the hosts’ distinguished champions, this may be their last hurrah against Australia. Morne Morkel has confirmed as much, saying he will sign off from international cricket at the final Test in Cape Town. His bone-crunching contest with Michael Clarke four years ago at that venue remains the defining image of it, and he’s lost nothing since.
Nor has Vernon Philander, a routine nuisance for Steve Smith’s men as the world leader of his cagy craft. The consistency and experience both he and Morkel bring allows Kagiso Rabada the latitude to deliver with the utmost freedom. Rapid and resourceful, he’s already claimed the ICC top-ranked bowler crown at 21 years of age with 120 wickets in 26 Tests.
Itis easy to brush over the fact that Dale Steyn, with 419 wickets, could return from his heel injury later in the series; or that in his place against India came yet another young firebrand from the seemingly never-ending local production line, Lungi Ngidi. Like Cummins all those years before, the 21-year-old earned seven wickets on debut. Even so, he most likely won’t get a game to begin with seaming all-rounder Theunis de Bruyn expected to play to bolster the Proteas’ batting lineup. One thing is certain: dependable left-arm spinner Keshav Majaraj will play, tallying 48 wickets in 2017 since his successful debut against Australia in 2016.
Then there is Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis – middle-order adversaries the Australians know better than almost any others. The latter’s captaincy is as revered as his batting, even if he will start with a troublesome right index finger. All three have led this side, boasting 56 Test centuries between them.
They also walk out following the world’s most accomplished opener in 2017, Dean Elgar. Generation next is represented by his partner Aiden Markham and wicketkeeper Quintin de Kock. The explosive left-hander couldn’t buy a run against India, but he has made plenty against Australia in all forms of the game.
The names, form and history combine to make this the marquee series of 2018. The best bit: it is being given the chance to breathe over four fixtures rather than three – a step in the right direction. If Smith’s men can do as history suggests and win abroad, they will be well on their way to the top of the world. If du Plessis’ charges break the home curse, a champion generation will have earned their chance to sing together one last time. Strap in.
