Proteas must make Australia earn it

Underestimate Australia at your own peril. South Africa know that better than most. Australia have carried an authority few sporting teams can match.

Even when questions surrounded their form or selection, they usually arrived ready for the contest.

That remains true ahead of their three-Test tour of South Africa later this year, with the first Test beginning at Kingsmead on 9 October.

The Proteas, however, have reason to believe they can dominate the series. They are world Test champions, possess an outstanding bowling attack and defeated Australia in the 2025 World Test Championship final.

The team that arrives in South Africa will be considerably different from the one that toured in 2018.

Several greats from that series remain. Steve Smith is still the pillar of the batting order, while Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins form the foundation of one of the finest and most complete bowling attacks in Test cricket.

READ: Starc climbs to sixth on all-time pace wicket-takers list

Cummins belongs alongside Kagiso Rabada and Jasprit Bumrah in the conversation about the best fast bowler of this generation. Starc can change a Test with the new ball or old, while Hazlewood recently became the ninth Australian to reach 300 Test wickets.

These players have earned their standing through years of performing in difficult conditions. The Proteas will give them the respect they deserve.

The intrigue lies in the team developing around them.

Usman Khawaja’s retirement has opened a space at the top of the order, with Jake Weatherald receiving an opportunity to fill it.

Travis Head has moved up from the middle order to open alongside him. He enters this period fresh from winning a second consecutive Allan Border Medal as Australia’s leading men’s cricketer.

Head is among the most destructive batsmen in the game. If he survives the opening exchanges, he can take a match away from an opponent very quickly.

Marnus Labuschagne, meanwhile, is working his way back towards the prolific form that once made him the world’s top-ranked Test batsman.

There is plenty of ability within that top order. Weatherald has years of domestic experience, Head is operating at the peak of his powers and Labuschagne has already shown the standard he can reach.

Australia’s depth continues behind Smith.

Cameron Green has been elevated to No 5 and remains one of the country’s most gifted all-rounders. His ability to contribute with both bat and ball gives Australia a player capable of changing the balance of the side.

Alex Carey follows at No 6 after a strong Ashes campaign with the bat and gloves. He pushed Head close in the voting for the Allan Border Medal and has become a reliable source of counterattacking runs.

Beau Webster provides another all-round option at No 7, strengthening the batting while offering Cummins an additional seamer. Josh Inglis gives the selectors another batting and wicketkeeping option should they decide to adjust the balance.

Australia are hardly short of quality.

What they are searching for is the familiarity and certainty their previous batting combinations enjoyed.

A new opening partnership needs time to develop. Head’s attacking style can transform a match, although opening in South Africa will present a different examination.

Labuschagne also occupies a crucial position at No 3. Should he rediscover his best form, Australia’s batting order will immediately look more secure. If his recent inconsistency continues, greater responsibility will fall on Smith.

That is where the Proteas can apply pressure.

Rabada and Marco Jansen possess the pace, bounce and movement to test a relatively new opening partnership. Early wickets would force Smith, Green and Carey to rebuild rather than allowing Australia’s middle order to attack an older ball.

Smith will remain the wicket South Africa value most. One way to limit his influence will be to keep removing partners at the other end.

Australia’s bowling remains their greatest source of confidence.

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Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins have spent years winning Tests together. Nathan Lyon provides experience and balance, while Scott Boland has made such a strong case that many would have him in Australia’s first-choice pace attack.

There is no weak option among them.

The answer will be graft, almost Elgar-esque in its stubbornness.

Dean Elgar’s Test career was defined by his willingness to absorb pressure and make bowlers work for his wicket. He understood that survival could gradually become an attacking weapon.

Australia’s quicks are masters at turning one wicket into two or three. Elgar’s value was his ability to stop those passages before they cleaned up the entire batting lineup. South Africa will need that same resistance.

An hour of survival can be as valuable as a burst of boundaries. The longer a partnership lasts, the more often Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood must find another way through.

South Africa do not need pretty runs. They need hard runs that make one of the game’s best attacks earn every wicket.

If the Proteas can occupy the crease and consistently post competitive totals, their own bowlers have the quality to take advantage.

South Africa showed at Lord’s that they can withstand Australia’s pressure and respond with their own. That victory should give them the conviction to approach this series as equals rather than hopeful challengers.

Australia are still Australia, but they are beatable.

Dominating them does not require treating them as a fading force. It requires recognising that they are moving between generations and refusing to be intimidated by the great names that remain.

The Head-Weatherald partnership remains relatively new, Labuschagne is searching for his best form and Green, Carey, Webster and Inglis give the selectors several ways to configure the middle order.

Australia have enviable depth. What they are still seeking is permanence.

That depth may quickly provide the answer. Australian history suggests it often does.

South Africa must ensure they are never given the comfort to settle.

Underestimate Australia at your own peril. Respecting their history, however, should never mean surrendering to it before the series begins.

Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

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