Shukri Conrad’s Proteas will be “quietly confident” going into the World Test Championship Final against Australia at Lord’s which starts on Wednesday.

Just two days out from the WTC Final at Lords, the hype is starting to build around this clash between South Africa and Australia. Going into the Test there have been many debates on the Proteas’ journey to the final with a lot of critics pointing out that the teams they faced were not the strongest compared to who Australia have faced.

In the coach’s pre-match press conference, Shukri Conrad was confident and calm in his responses to the media:

“I think enough’s been spoken about that. I’m tired of speaking about it, to be honest. We’re here and that’s all that matters. We get a chance to walk away as the World Test champions, playing Australia. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. So, yeah, what’s gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute.”

Another one of the talking points was that South Africa hasn’t won an ICC trophy since 1998. Over the last 27-seven years, the Proteas always seemed to fall short never making it out of in semi-finals which led them to being labelled “chokers”. However, they recently managed to reach a final in 2023 at the ICC T20 World Cup which ended up in them falling short again.

When asked if that weighs heavy on the group Conrad said:

“No, it doesn’t weigh heavy on us. I think it’s unfair to burden this group with anything that’s gone before. We know we want to and we need to win another ICC event, but whatever tags come along, we don’t wear that. Like I said, it’s unfair to burden this group with that. It’s just another occasion to set the record straight and to get that first title. You can only win it if you play in finals. The more finals you play in, you obviously improve your chances of winning.”

When comparing the two squads it’s clear that Australia has a much more experienced squad in their batting and bowling department, however, when you look at the South African batting attack majority of the players haven’t played much Test cricket except for Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram. The majority of the Proteas squad comes from their bowlers hence the reason why most eyes are on the South African bowling attack.

When asked about how he feels about his batting attack Conrad said:

“The inexperience of the batters is very apparent in terms of the number of tests played. Rankings on the ICC rankings. So, I think it’s pretty normal to chat about the bowlers when you’ve got guys like Kagiso Rabada, ranked two in the world, and Marco and Keshav. But on the batting front, look I think there’s a quiet confidence amongst the batting group. They come off a lot of confidence having gotten hundreds of different players at different stages. So, whilst they might not have the superstar names amongst them, I think as a collective we’re pretty confident.”

While many have questioned South Africa’s path to the final and pointed to their lack of experience and past heartbreaks, this Proteas side seems calm, focused, and ready to write their own story.

They’re not carrying the weight of history, nor are they fazed by the noise around them.

As Shukri Conrad put it, “We’ll be quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them.”