1st Test preview: Welcome to Brigadoon

Babar Azam and Kagiso Rabada will enrich first Test narrative.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

PAKISTAN! The word shimmers from a fairytale. It is cricket’s Brigadoon, a fictional Scottish village that appears to the world only for one day every 100 years. Far less time than that has passed since South Africa were last there, but it feels like a lot more than the calendar’s measure of 13 years and not quite 10 months.

Time rhymes in the fact that the last Test at the National Stadium in Karachi before international cricket’s travelling circus scratched Pakistan off its itinerary, from 2009 to 2015, also involved South Africa. That was in October 2007, when Jacques Kallis scored centuries in both innings, Paul Harris and Dale Steyn claimed five-wicket-hauls, and Graeme Smith’s team won by 160 runs. The victory was one of only two South Africa have achieved in their seven Tests in Pakistan. But they have lost just one there.

That illustrates how much Test cricket has changed since South Africa were last in Pakistan. In the 13 years and 10 months before South Africa’s last match there, 26.95% of all Tests anywhere were drawn. In the 13 years and 10 months that followed, that figure reduced to 21.14%. The last 10 years have seen it shrink to 18.12%, and to 12.16% in the past five years. So we are seeing fewer than half the number of drawn Tests now than when South Africa were previously in Pakistan.

During the same period we’ve also seen the rise of T20 cricket as the game’s driving philosophy. The formats are clearly different, but the shortest of them is where innovations happen and are developed to the point where they can be performed consistently. But the new ideas don’t stay there. Thanks largely to the T20 revolution, batting, bowling, fielding and thinking have been upgraded throughout cricket. And the Pakistanis, ever the innovators, were part of that process in the 269 matches they played — 135 at neutral venues — while the suits deemed their country too at risk of terrorist attacks to allow the game to be played there at the highest level.

Twenty-eight international matches have been staged in Pakistan since they came in from the cold in May 2015. But only three of them have been Tests and their opponents have been the likes of Zimbabwe, a World XI, Sri Lanka West Indies and Bangladesh. That makes the series against South Africa easily the most high profile cricket event in Pakistan in the new era.

Happily, then, the home side will have captain and batting kingpin Babar Azam back from the thumb injury that kept him out of the two Tests in New Zealand in December and January. How they need him. Pakistan lost those games by 101 runs and by an innings. Only Azhar Ali has scored more runs in Tests than Azam since the latter’s debut in October 2016; 535 more but in 11 more innings. Azam has led Pakistan in three ODIs and 11 T20Is — eight of them at home — since being appointed captain in November. This will thus be the first time he is in charge in a Test, which will be his 30th.

Imran Butt seems set to make his debut and open the batting with Abid Ali. The likelihood of seamer Faheem Ashraf cracking the nod ahead of left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz as Pakistan’s allrounder could mean they expect some zip in the pitch. Yasir Shah will lead a spin attack that probably will also feature Nauman Ali.

Quinton de Kock will play his 50th Test and his third as captain. He guided his team to success in the first two, against Sri Lanka by an innings by 10 wickets at Centurion and the Wanderers in December and January. But Tuesday’s challenge will be different. For instance, Keshav Maharaj bowled only 26 overs — none of them at the Wanderers — in the same series in which Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder sent down more than 50 each and Anrich Nortjé toiled through 65.4. Mark Boucher confirmed on Monday that Maharaj wouldn’t be the only spinner in South Africa’s XI. The visitors also have Tabraiz Shamsi and George Linde in their bubble, and the smart money will be on Shamsi to earn his third cap. Lutho Sipamla might sit this one out in that cause.

Kagiso Rabada missed the Lankan series with a leg injury. His return to the Test arena after more than a year spent bowling only with white balls is all but assured. Ngidi, the least successful of South Africa’s fast bowlers against Sri Lanka, could make way for Rabada.

When: Tuesday January 26, 2021. 10am Local Time

Where: National Stadium, Karachi

What to expect: Who can say, considering the last time Test cricket came to Karachi was in October 2007. But it seems the teams differ on the likely conditions. Pakistan’s probable inclusion of Faheem Ashraf as their bowling allounder surely means they think the surface will have significant pace. South Africa’s stated commitment to picking more than one spinner suggests they disagree.

Team news

Pakistan: Babar’s back! What else do you want to know?

Possible XI: Abid Ali, Imran Butt, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf, Nouman Ali, Hassan Ali, Yasir Shah, Shaheen Afridi.

South Africa: KG’s back! What else do you want to know?

Possible XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.

What they said

“The unpredictability of Pakistan will always be there. I won’t say they’re moody cricketers, but if they’re up for a game they are at their best. If we can get them to doubt themselves early in the match, then we must do that.” - Mark Boucher reckons not everything about Pakistan has changed since he was last there almost 14 years ago.

“We need to be good enough against top-quality sides if we want ourselves to be considered as a top side. And for that we need to win series against top teams.” - Babar Azam captures the essence of his team’s challenge.

First published by Cricbuzz.