Australia vs South Africa: How Proteas are preparing for a "fiery" Test series
Australia vs South Africa is one of cricket's more unusual rivalries in the sense that there's no real reason for them to be aggressive towards one other
Dean Elgar: "Because we are playing in their home conditions, it's going to be pretty feisty"This isn't like England vs Australia, which has the historical baggage of the Ashes, or India vs Pakistan, which has geopolitical connotations behind it.
However, the last time these two teams faced off in a Test series changed everything. And this is especially true for Australia.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🏏The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Proteas?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Proteas</a> head into the 3-match Test series against Australia as huge underdogs but will rely heavily on their impressive record in Tests on Australian soil. <a href="https://twitter.com/Poswayo_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Poswayo_</a> looks at the impressive record Of Proteas against the Aussies away from home👇<a href="https://t.co/MJ2SghpVFn">https://t.co/MJ2SghpVFn</a></p>— Bet.co.za (@betcoza) <a href="https://twitter.com/betcoza/status/1602558999462875136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Yes, of course, we're referring to the 2018 series that led to the infamous Newlands ball-tampering scandal, dubbed 'Sandpapergate' for reasons everyone is well familiar with at this point.
When Cameron Bancroft was caught trying to tamper the ball with some sticky sandpaper, the fallout led to Steve Smith losing his captaincy, Darren Lehman losing his job as a coach, David Warner getting a lifetime leadership ban and a focus on shifting the culture in Australian cricket.
The culture shift in Australian cricket has, by and significant, been successful, as while the Aussies are still aggressive in their style of play, they aren't the same side who looked to out-sledge you while outplaying you.
This makes South Africa captain Dean Elgar's pre-series comments so unusual.
"Because we are playing in their home conditions, it's going to be pretty feisty. The individuals they have within their squad are pretty brash and bold – in your face kind of characters and that can work in our favour. I think that plays into our hands," Elgar said.
"We enjoy that confrontation as a group and manage it pretty well. We've got calm heads around that. If they want to be in your face, that's fine."
"I definitely don't shy away from that and I will be encouraging the players not to shy away from that because I think that's when South Africans bring out their best."
However, a different interpretation of his comments can be seen as an attempt to poke the bear. Again, it's not as if cricket relations between South Africa and Australia were cordial even before 2018.
The series seems to bring out something in both sides, especially the South Africans, who often took offence to Australia's aggression and tried to match it.
The verbal shots would fly, as would the overly aggressive body language – sometimes that went too far, as it did so in the case of Kagiso Rabada's shoulder barge on Smith in 2018.
But generally speaking, this is a rivalry that all but ensures sparks will fly on the field. Moreover, there's plenty to play for in the World Test Championship.
Australia are currently comfortably seated atop the table, whereas South Africa are second but is in no way guaranteed to maintain that spot as things stand.
Yet one gets the feeling the WTC scenarios will take a backseat in this particular series. And one can also expect plenty of barbs about sandpaper flying around – as well as some intense cricket action during this Australian summer.