South Africa coach Russell Domingo believes that, despite picking three spinners for the long tour of India, his fast bowlers will be able to step up and unnerve the home batting line-up. South Africa have spinners in Imran Tahir, Dane Piedt and Simon Harmer but the experience of speedsters like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel has always held them in good stead.
SA Coach Domingo was speaking to the press after South Africa’s first practice session. He said that having played in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the pace bowlers would be able to make use of their experience and knowledge of the conditions to get going and accomplish all their goals.
Proteas Ready to Unleash Pace Attack, Says Coach Russell Domingo
“Indian players are very good players of spin, but our fast bowlers have been successful in these conditions. Although spin is going to be a very big factor in this series, it’s important that our seamers start going for us,” Domingo said in a media interaction.
“Dale and Morne are in the plans for World T20,” said Domingo “It will be a very long tour so we had to decide how best to manage our bowlers and we felt for Dale and Morne to be here for 75 days will be a tough ask; practising and playing day in day out. And also it doesn’t allow the development of next line of bowlers like Khagiso (Rabada), Chris (Morris) and (Kyle) Abbott. It is a win-win situation for us, although World T20 is important for us, this is an opportunity for us to look in to other options as well.”
“I think we are fortunate that a lot of our players have played in the Indian conditions before. Lot of players, who have played the IPL, are familiar with the conditions. I suppose we do understand what is required to do well in these conditions because of the vast number of experienced players we have got in our squad,” Domingo said.
South Africa will play a Mandeep Singh-led India ‘A’ squad today in a T20 warm-up game in Delhi, before they travel to Dharamsala for the first T20 International against India which is scheduled to take place on October 2.