Mpongwana, De Swardt, Moreki create selection headache for Proteas coach Conrad

Shukri Conrad unsurprisingly wants to assess conditions at the Bay Oval in Mt Maunganui, before finalising his playing eleven, with the starting team’s balance and especially the composition of the bowling unit cause for head-scratching before Sunday’s first Test. 

The Proteas arrived in Mt Maunganui on Thursday, with two training sessions planned for Friday and Saturday. Conrad has offered few clues about the makeup of the starting XI. The first element he would have looked at was the weather, which is set to be fair for all five days. 

If history repeats itself, Bay Oval, which has hosted four Tests, is a venue that usually suits an old-fashioned style of Test match play. It is good for batting over the first three days, before breaking up, getting slower and bringing the spinners into play. 

The first of the three Tests played there all went into the fifth day. New Zealand won the first two of those, against England in 2019 and Pakistan the next year. 

Bangladesh — coached at the time by Russell Domingo — caused a major upset in 2022, winning by eight wickets.

The only match that didn’t reach the fifth day occurred last year when England ‘bazballed’ their way to a 267-run win, with Ben Stokes’ team scoring at more than five runs an over in both innings, ensuring a four-day finish.

Test records for Bay Oval indicate seam bowlers are the most successful. New Zealand’s left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner is the only spinner among the leading 10 wicket-takers at the ground, with Neil Wagner’s bouncer ploy having netted him 21 wickets there in four Tests.

Those statistics could tempt Conrad into playing four seamers, and relying on captain Neil Brand to provide spin. 

Though Brand is a reluctant bowler, Conrad has been encouraging him to refine his left-arm spin bowling and if the West Indies A series last year is to be a guide, Brand, who bowled 29 overs and took two wickets, will have a big role to play. 

The other more likely option is to start off-spinner Dane Piedt as the front-line tweaker and go into the match with three seamers, led by Duanne Olivier and Dane Patterson, with the identity of the third demanding careful thinking. 

Mihlali Mpongwana is a slight favourite for the position given his performances in that West Indies series, where he took five wickets and his overall impact for Western Province in the last few seasons, which included his inspirational display in the final of the One-Day Cup where he scored a century and took three wickets.

Ruan de Swardt and Tshepo Moreki are the other candidates, but while the former may hold the upper hand in the batting stakes, he hasn’t bowled as much as Mpongwana. Moreki hasn’t bowled with the kind of penetration he did for WP since making his move to Central Gauteng Lions at the start of the current season. 

Though Conrad wants his team to adopt a more positive mindset, given the lack of Test experience in the squad, he is perfectly entitled to pack the batting order, with Mpongwana possessing a solid technique that would make him a more than capable batter at No.8 in the order. 

A batting line-up of Brand, Ed Moore, Raynard van Tonder, Zubayr Hamza, David Bedingham, Keegan Petersen and wicketkeeper Clyde Fortuin may lack Test experience, but all of them are excellent first-class players, and for the most part are in good form this season.