SA cricket coach wants to continue with four quicks

CAPE TOWN: South Africa will field four frontline quicks as often as possible, particularly at home, as they aim for a more aggressive approach in familiar conditions.

After the team’s 72-run win in the opening Test against India, which was effectively achieved inside three days with a four-pronged pack pack, coach Ottis Gibson indicated the team balance will not change and South Africa will keep firing with their fast men.

“I’m a very fast-bowling minded coach and I guess we will always have to find a balance to see if we can get four fast bowlers in the team, first of all. We’ll look at things like are the conditions suited to four fast bowlers. If not we try and shape the team in other ways,” Gibson said.

“Ultimately, especially in this series and for the rest of the summer, we will be looking to see how best we can fit four fast bowlers into whatever formula we come up with.”The hosts went into the Newlands Test with their strongest quartet of seamers — Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada — and on a pitch with good pace, bounce and carry bowled India out for scores of 209 and 135 despite losing Steyn to injury midway through the match.

With surfaces only expected to get spicier as the series moves up-country to SuperSport Park and The Wanderers, Gibson wants to keep the same structure to the side.Steyn has been ruled out of the remaining matches with a heel injury, which means one of Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris or Andile Phehlukwayo will likely be included in the XI for the second and third Tests. Which one will depend on whoever can convince Gibson they’re up for the biggest fight.

South Africa’s new coach is interested in a bowler who is willing to show his fast and furious side.“When you are playing at home, you must play to your strengths,” Gibson said. “If you want to beat the best team in the world, which India are, then maybe we have to do something slightly different to what we’ve done in the past.

“We have to get stuck in and be tough with the bat and the ball; get in their faces a bit and use our physicality in terms of our pace. We had, in this game, three guys bowling over 140 (kph) so we need to use that and have a presence that says we are trying to get to where you are as a team.”

Given that South Africa have six more Tests in the next 12 weeks (two against India and four against Australia) and Gibson’s approach to the team make-up, a logical question will be over the fitness of the fast men.

Already, South Africa are one down, with Steyn’s injury, and over the last year all of Philander, Morkel, Morris and Ngidi have had relatively serious injuries.Asked how he intends to keep them all firing through the summer, Gibson explained that he is working on a national plan that will cover all the country’s quicks to achieve their long-term availability.

“Last week we had a discussion with the medical panel about trying to set up a a group of people to look after fast bowlers better. I think that fast bowlers are the bedrock of a really good cricket system and if we want to be No.1 in the world, especially in our conditions, fast bowlers are very important to that process,” Gibson said.