Proteas on the brink of WTC final: A look ahead to Pakistan series

The Proteas are within touching distance of reaching the holy grail of a place in the World Test Championship Final at Lord’s next year.

Temba Bavuma’s team are top of the WTC table and now require just one victory from the upcoming two Test matches against Pakistan at Centurion and Newlands.

They are also enjoying a five-match winning streak that stretches back to the second Test against the West Indies in Guyana.

Pakistan, though, will provide stiff opposition with the tourists having sent over their Test specialists early on to acclimatise to the South African conditions.

Equally, after a dismal last 12 months, Pakistan have renewed confidence after coming back from losing the first Test to win the next two matches to beat England 2-1 at home.

There’s no doubt the pitches at Centurion and Newlands are unlikely to resemble the Bunsen burners of Multan and Rawalpindi, but Proteas captain Temba Bavuma remains wary of the challenge Pakistan pose.

“We'll expect them to be competitive,” Bavuma said. “If I think of the last time we played against them, it wasn't an easy series when we played against them. That's when they came here to South Africa.

“We also went there to Pakistan. They beat us in Pakistan. So we obviously want to rectify that.

“In Pakistan, cricket is obviously going through a bit of a phase where probably their confidence is not at the all-time high. So, we'll obviously want to exploit that as much as we can.

“But look, like all international outfits, we expect them to be competitive. We expect them to be wanting to come here and win. We expect them to be competitive.”

Bavuma hasn’t had time yet to ponder over the team permutations for the Pakistan series with Gerald Coetzee and Wiaan Mulder still on the sidelines.

“We haven't gotten there to that point yet, to be honest. I think for now it's to enjoy the moment, celebrate, acknowledge the moment, what we've achieved as a team,” he said.

“Probably after a week or so we'll start speaking about Pakistan, look at the venues that we're playing at, SuperSport Park as well as Newlands, and start understanding what we expect from a conditions point of view. Start putting together a team that will speak to those venues. It could be different.”

Bavuma, though, is confident that the Proteas have sufficient depth to cover all bases, as they showed in the second Test against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park in Gqeberha when Ryan Rickelton and Dane Paterson came into the line-up.

“As you have seen with us, things do change quite quickly. But I think from a hunger, from a desire point of view, keep feeding into that. We know where we would like to be as a team,” he said.

“That's at the back of our minds. And we continue reminding ourselves in terms of the good cricket that we play. Pakistan will be a different test.

“We know as batters as you're going to be facing bowlers who are coming in at 140, so you've got to make sure that your eyes are on everything, you're sharp. And from a bowling point of view as well, guys will have to adapt.”