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Graeme Smith: England’s tour of New Zealand is a 50-50 series

11 Nov | BY Graeme Smith | MIN READ TIME |
Graeme Smith: England’s tour of New Zealand is a 50-50 series

Betway's global cricket ambassador looks ahead to South Africa's pursuit of the World Test Championship, England's tour of New Zealand and the upcoming Betway SA20 series.

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World Test Championship another exciting opportunity for South Africa

It’s exciting to see South Africa in contention for a spot in the World Test Championship final. For whatever reason, finding consistency in our Test side hasn’t been easy. It’s been really hard for us against the top three nations, but it was really good to see the side play so well in Bangladesh and to win as convincingly as we did.

Our batting is the weakest element of our Test line up and we’ve struggled to find balance in the squad, but the competition for places heading into the home summer is exciting. Temba Bavuma should be fit, and that will create some tension in the batting line-up. You’ve got Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee coming back from layoffs, so from a bowling perspective the squad will have some good assets against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Sitting there with your fate in your own hands is certainly a place that you’d want to be.

What we want to see is progression. After years of struggling to challenge for events, we’ve now made a World Cup semi-final, a World T20 final last year and we’re in the running for the World Test Championship. Yes, we would love to get our hands on a trophy, as the only way to get rid of that talking point is by winning, but I think what we’re starting to see is a progression of performance, challenging for titles and being at events with a real opportunity to go on to win them.

What’s good about the World Test Championship is that it creates context for what’s happening on the field, and talkability. South Africa against Bangladesh could easily have been lost in the conversation with the amount of cricket that is happening, but as South Africa have got an opportunity to challenge for the World Test Championship it’s got media coverage and is bringing context to the bilateral series, which is what you want.

When there’s just cricket being played all over the place and teams are fitting in matches like Australia touring England for five ODIs at the end of the summer, it makes it hard for fans. They’re proud of their nation and they want to watch big games, but it’s hard for them to know what all of this is about. So anything that creates context is good.

Stokes and McCullum right to stick by England’s batters

It seemed that the type of surfaces changed during England’s tour of Pakistan, and that’s the big challenge for England. Outside of Joe Root, England play a certain way and it’s not easy to just keep playing one style of cricket. You’ve got to adapt to the challenges in front of you, especially when touring away from home. I think England have got a formula for playing in England – the ball swings, the batters know what to expect – but when you’re travelling, sometimes you do need to adapt. It seems their method requires some change of skill level and change of strategy when things are tough.

I have no problem with Ben Stokes sticking by his top six batters, though. Over a consistent period of time, he and Brendan McCullum have created confidence in players to go and take the game on, be positive and get rid of that fear of failure. If you think back to how long it took Zak Crawley to find his feet, and they’ve still stuck behind him and backed him. They pick players they believe can play the way they want to play.

Batting is hard. It’s not easy to score runs, and one bad tour doesn’t make you a bad player. English cricket in the past was very volatile from a selection perspective. There wasn’t a lot of confidence given to players, but Stokes and McCullum seem to have stabilised that and said, “this is the group of guys we’re going to back.”

New Zealand is their next big tour, and it will be interesting to see what the conditions are like. If they go flat, it’s going to play into England’s hands, but you would probably expect the wickets to turn or seam. With New Zealand’s style, if there’s something in the surface then they have a unique ability to compete and get the best out of themselves.

There are lots of ebbs and flows in Test cricket, though. New Zealand lost in Sri Lanka, and then went and whitewashed India in India. I still expect New Zealand against England to be very much a tough, 50-50 series that could go either way.

New Zealand upset raises questions for India

New Zealand’s tour of India was brilliant to watch, and in my opinion it raises more questions about India’s approach and way forward. There’s more pressure on them ahead of their tour of Australia now, especially their big players in the latter stages of their careers. It opens up a lot more questions about balancing youth with experience.

Those experienced India players will know that going to Australia is hard. The challenge for them now will be trying to get their big players into form and confidence ahead of that series. If they can get the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal playing well at the top of the order, it really does take away a lot of pressure.

Australia have an outstanding fast bowling group, but it is generally a good place to bat. You can get in there and get good value for your strokes. But if you’re on the back foot and you’re behind in the game, Australia can kill you as a touring team. India have to find a way to make sure their preparation is good, get the confidence back in their game, and start well. If you get behind in Australia, the crowds and media attention that a series like this attracts make it very, very difficult to fight your way back in.

Betway SA20 Season 3 will be more exciting and competitive than ever

Every year, the Betway SA20 surprises me, but I’ve realised that it’s not about my strategy, it’s about the teams’. They have a very different way of looking at players and strategies, and every year their scouting gets better in South Africa.

I’ve also learned as the Betway SA20 commissioner that the game is not played on paper. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I remember in Season 1, everyone looking at MI Cape Town and thinking they were the team to beat, and they came last!

At Betway SA20, our whole objective is to provide the platform for players to develop, and to build a league that is equally competitive across the board. If we can get down to the last week in and all six teams have a chance to qualify, then we feel like we’ve done our job well.

If you look at the teams across the board, with the top South African players and international talent per team, it’s shaping up to be a really exciting tournament with the quality that’s going to be on show. The rookies will be another exciting element to watch, and now we’re seeing even more real quality added with the likes of Ben Stokes, Kane Williamson and Devon Conway. The out-and-out best players in the world are coming to Betway SA20.

As a fan of cricket, do I look forward to the prospect of Marco Jansen running in at Ben Stokes in Cape Town? Of course. In the first ball of the opening game in Season 1 we had Jofra Archer running in to bowl at Jos Buttler. It’s just incredible that we’ve been able to build a league for fans in South Africa and around the world to watch those moments happen.

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Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith

Betway's global cricket ambassador who captained South Africa in 108 of his 116 Tests, scoring over 9,000 runs and 27 hundreds.

Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith

Betway's global cricket ambassador who captained South Africa in 108 of his 116 Tests, scoring over 9,000 runs and 27 hundreds.