If past series’ between South Africa and Australia are anything to go by, one thing’s for sure, this series will have its fair share of drama and spice whether on or off the field. 

The rivalry is possibly one of cricket’s finest. While South Africa’s record speaks for itself, the cricket on display is always mouthwatering and makes for excellent viewing whether you’re a supporter of either team or a neutral. 

The one negative, if you can even call it that, is that being in South Africa, you will have to live off caffeine and hope it keeps you awake with the matches starting in the early hours of the morning. 

Interim head coach, Malibongwe Maketa, has stated that the team is very excited to play at the Gabba. 

“It’s one of those venues where a lot of the players will give you feedback that you feel the crowd is on top of you.”

We know South Africa’s pace attack can compete but it’s the batting that’s been the biggest concern for the past few seasons. Centuries and to some degree even half-centuries have been scarce. 

If Elgar’s men are to stand any chance down under, the batters will have to muster up big partnerships and big runs. 

They had a fairly decent warm-up. Although Elgar was the lone batter who scored a hundred, he’d be pleased that Rassie van Der Dussen (95), Kyle Verreynne (80) and Theunis de Bruyn (88) all got some much-needed runs under their belt going into the first Test on Saturday. 

Maketa has reiterated his confidence in the team. 

“We’re going to have to back our batters to score the runs and our bowlers to take the 20 wickets.”

He also pinpointed that the bowlers are aware of their supporting roles with the top-order batters and their contributions to creating partnerships. 

“If you look at the way we’ve played in the past, our bowlers have allowed us to get into good positions by getting 350-360, so from that point of view partnerships are key for us and the bowlers know their role with top-order batters and that has worked well for us.

“I do believe we got enough in terms of our attack to be able to take 20 wickets and for me, Test cricket is really boiled down to who can get 20 wickets. 

“Wickets that we’ve played on in the past have been a bit challenging in terms of offering all three – movement, bounce (or rather sexy bounce as he mentioned afterwards) and a bit of seam – whereby here it’s been more consistent bounce.”