South Africa begin their summer on Thursday when they kick off a two match Test series with Bangladesh in Potchefstroom. They will be out to lay a marker down for the busy period to come while the tourists will be looking to show that they can be a force away from home.
South Africa
It is the start of a new era for South Africa with Ottis Gibson in charge of them for the first time. They have chosen a new opening partner for Dean Elgar which will be interesting to see how they gel and they are going to be without a couple of key weapons in the bowling attack. In a two match series there is no time to ease themselves in.
With perceived tougher tests to come this summer, du Plessis will want his side to be ruthless and get a run of momentum going to take into those challenges. That will mean dominating with the bat and being relentless with the ball in their hand which is a trademark we have become accustomed to for this side anyway.
Bangladesh
Although Bangladesh have never beaten South Africa in a Test match they are a whole heap better now than they have ever been against them so they should be more competitive in this series at the very least. Having said that they will be without two players in one in Shakib so they might need a game or two to adjust.
That will be a blow to Bangladesh who don’t get many chances to show their worth overseas. We have seen them really begin to compete at home where their wickets suit the spinners in their bowling attack but we’ve not really seen their seamers against top level sides on green pitches. We’ll get that chance here.
Team News
Aiden Markram will make his Test debut in this match as the opening partner for Dean Elgar. Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn have been ruled out. Wayne Parnell is fit to play but make miss out.
Bangladesh will be without Shakib-al-Hasan who has been given a six month Test rest. Subashis Roy could be preferred to Rubel Hossein in what is expected to be a three prong pace attack.
Senwes Park
This will be just the second Test match to be held on this ground. The previous match here was between these two teams which South Africa won by an innings. It is hard to know what to make of the wicket based on that but we are early in the season still so it may assist the bowlers somewhat.
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Betting
It is going to be a performance bet in this match for me too. That is in the form of the South African bowler Kagiso Rabada who has a low looking line at 120.5 it has to be said.
Rabada is one of the better red ball bowlers going around at the minute and I fully expect him to be among the wickets in this match and six wickets is perfectly possible but we know he can hold the bat so if he can churn out a few with the bat in his hand then he may not even need those six wickets. The potential for this line to be covered is on the high side I would suggest.
Tips
Back K.Rabada’s Performance – Over 120.5pts for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
Back him here:
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