The South African Test squad will have its focus on playing good cricket rather than worrying about regaining the No.1 ICC Test ranking when the series against India starts in Nagpur on Saturday. That this would be the team’s approach was spelt out by captain Graeme Smith during an interaction with the media.
“The No.1 ranking is not really an issue for us. India have been playing good cricket, that is why they are ranked No.1. We will concentrate on our own game. We know that if we perform to our level and our standards we can put India under a lot of pressure. Any time you come to India it is always very tough, so we probably start as underdogs.
“I would say that India are the favourites, so, from our perspective, we know we’ve got to play good cricket and we are confident about our abilities,” the South Africa captain said. Smith also expressed confidence that he and interim coach Corrie van Zyl would work together effectively, pointing out that Van Zyl had been assistant coach when the captaincy came to him, in 2003.
“As far as having a new coach in Corrie is concerned, we have worked together before and we had a good session today. The players are all going about their work as normal to make sure that, come Saturday, we are all prepared as well as we can.” As to the likely Indian line-up, the Proteas’ captain said he would be interested to see how the home side adapted their batting line-up to cope with the absence of Rahul Dravid.
“They still have quality players, but to lose somebody of the calibre of Dravid, with an incredible record of over 10,000 runs, is always very difficult. There is still a lot of quality in the Indian team. “The No.3 is obviously a key position in any batting line-up, so it is going to be very interesting to see whom they choose to use there. The rest of the guys are pretty set in their batting positions so it will be interesting to see if they put Badrinath at No.3 or somebody else.”
On Shahid Afridi’s ball-tampering, Smith said: “Shahid probably didn’t like the lunch… It’s always tough in the heat of the moment (when you are trying to play according to the rules).”
The Proteas start their tour with a two-day practice match against the BCCI President’s XI and Smith stressed on the importance of his team using the first five days of the tour as productively as possible. “The two-day game is about preparation. Any time you can spend in the middle with bat or ball is important. With the rushed preparation, we want to make sure that we get the most out of all our days, leading up to Saturday. The next two days are crucial and whether we bat or bowl, it is important that we get the most out of it.” With the Board XI having named a squad of 14 it is likely that both sides will use more than 11 players during the match.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100202/jsp/sports/story_12056170.jsp
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