AUS vs SA: "Back Six Batters": Graeme Smith Urges South Africa To Adopt A "Aggressive Mindset" In Australia

Former captain Graeme Smith feels South Africa should keep to an “aggressive mindset” and deploy six batting and five bowlers during their Test tour of Australia.

Smith wants the squad to unleash their finest assault, which includes five match-winning bowlers.

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Smith told ESPNcricinfo, “I’d want to see South Africa bring back its six batters.” “I believe there is always that anxiety because the batting has been so poor. They’ve always tried to bring in an extra batter. Perhaps that is a defensive mindset rather than an aggressive mindset. I’d want to see them adopt an aggressive attitude.”

“You’ve got Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen. You have Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, and Keshav Maharaj, all of whom are superb Test bowlers capable of winning games on their own. Work on the batters, get the six batters to bat in pairs and calculate totals. Bowlers can win games if they acquire the desired totals. And South Africa should select bowlers capable of winning games.”

“South Africa needed to focus on building partnerships”: Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith also stated that South Africa must focus on developing partnerships. They have only had nine-century stands in the last two years, which is the fewest among the nine World Test Championships sides.

“If you can put together 100-150 partnerships, you can start to have an impact on the team’s innings. When you’re under pressure, you tend to focus on yourself, which adds to the strain.”

“How you can work together as a batting team to generate totals in Australia will be critical. You certainly need some of your key players to shine and relieve pressure on the younger players” Graeme Smith remarked on ESPNcricinfo.

The South African national cricket team will tour Australia in December 2022 and January 2023 to play three Test matches and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) for the first time since the 2008–09 season.

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