FILE - Afghanistan's Rashid Khan bowls during the ICC Men's Twenty20 World Cup semi-final against the Proteas. Rashid will lead the Afghan’s spin attack against the South Africa in the UAE. FILE - Afghanistan's Rashid Khan bowls during the ICC Men's Twenty20 World Cup semi-final against the Proteas. Rashid will lead the Afghan’s spin attack against the South Africa in the UAE. Picture: Chandan Khanna / AFP
The Proteas are bracing themselves for a trial by spin when they face Afghanistan in a three-match One-Day International series which starts in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
The Afghans have been boosted by the return of ace spinner Rashid Khan, who has been included in their squad after he missed the one-off Test match against New Zealand in India to rest his back.
Rashid underwent back surgery in November after the ODI ICC Cricket World Cup in India, but has been a busy boy over the last couple of months since last playing for Afghanistan in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup against the Proteas.
Since the T20 World Cup in the West Indies, Rashid has featured in Major League Cricket in the United States, the Men’s Hundred in England and even turned out in three matches in the Shpageeza Cricket League in his home country.
So, Rashid will hardly be underdone when he brings his leg-spin to the Sharjah Stadium on Wednesday (4pm SA time start), which has traditionally took some turn quite early on.
The Proteas will be without their best player of spin Heinrich Klaasen for the series, but they still have Tristan Stubbs and Aiden Markram in the middle-order who can counter attack and take the game to the Afghan bowlers.
South Africa’s fast bowler Lungi Ngidi is hoping for a bit of assistance for the seamers, but even he knows that it may be a spinners paradise in Sharjah.
“We know what their strength is. Having played here before, we saw how our spinners came into the game, so that will be important, knowing that they have world-class spinners,” Ngidi said.
“But if there is a little bit of swing or lateral movement with the ball, our seamers will have to play a bigger role.
“At the end of the day, we don’t know what [conditions] we are going to get ... we haven’t been here for quite a while. So we will assess the conditions and take it from there.”
One thing everybody is certain about is the way the Afghanistan batsmen are going to do at the top of the order.
While they will be without the influential Ibrahim Zadran at the top of the order, they tend to go hard upfront against the new ball in the power play. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is still there and will be a key player Afghanistan in the series.
“They seem to be very aggressive upfront, that is their biggest foundation. And then they have the other players chip in with runs in the lower order and middle order,” Ngidi said.
“The biggest thing for us is to control the top end of their batting line-up. Their bowling is one of their strengths, so we have to make sure whatever they get on the board we can chase it down, realising their strength is probably coming in the second innings.”
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