Ervine wary of Proteas young guns

Brandon Moyo-Zimpapers Sports Hub

WITH a new look South African side ready to prove their mettle, Zimbabwe Test captain Craig Ervine knows his team is in for anything but a walk in the park when the two-match series gets underway at Queens Sports Club today.

Despite the Proteas fielding a youthful and largely inexperienced team, missing five of their ICC World Test Championship (WTC) winning stars, including injured skipper Temba Bavuma, Ervine is not taking the challenge lightly.

For him and the Chevrons, it’s a golden opportunity to reset their Test ambitions, but one that will demand total focus and flawless execution.

The veteran Zimbabwean skipper believes that the hunger in South Africa’s fresh faced squad could be just as dangerous as experience.

“They are missing a few key players and the guys that came in will be wanting to prove a point. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be a tough challenge for us to try and get one over them.

“Our preparations have been good, we covered all the basics and hopefully we can get out there and showcase that for the next few days,” said Ervine.

He added that facing top tier opposition like South Africa and New Zealand in back-to-back series will offer invaluable benchmarks for a side eager to enter the next WTC cycle.

“Our preparations have been really good. The guys have put in a lot of hard work. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have been more of a top-up and technical-specific sessions leading to Saturday.

“Everybody is excited to be going. One of our ultimate goals is to get into the World Test Championship and you can only really test yourself against a real quality side like South Africa and New Zealand to come.”

“This is the start of our quest to get there, and you can only improve as a cricketer and team when playing against quality sides like South Africa.

“We have played enough Test cricket this year to see some consistency and we still have six more Tests to go this year so there is a lot to play for.

“Hopefully, we can pick up some wins in those Tests and that also gives you some confidence that you belong to play against some good quality sides. We have created a good family around the squad, there is good unity,” said Ervine.

On the bowling front, Zimbabwe will be leaning on Blessing Muzarabani, who has been in fine form. The lanky quick leads the Test wicket-taking charts in 2025 with 29 dismissals in five matches at an average of 21.62.

South African skipper Keshav Maharaj admitted Muzarabani was a key point of their planning.

“We focused a little bit on him. We know he has got good pace and gets a lot of bounce and has improved a lot since we last played against him in 2017. We identified him as one of the threats and hopefully our plans come off well,” said Maharaj.

Leading the Proteas in a Test for the first time, Maharaj said his young team is prepared for the challenge Zimbabwe presents on home turf.

“We, unfortunately haven’t played a lot of cricket against Zimbabwe but we know the threat that they possess, they play really well in home conditions.

“They have a lot of experience within their line-up, we have a little bit of inexperience, but hopefully the youth comes through. We have good plans to command their bowlers and batters,” he said.

South Africa’s XI features three debutants, Lhuan-dre Pretorious, Codi Yusuf, and Dewald Brevis, while Mathew Breetzke, Corbin Bosch, and Kwena Maphaka have just one Test apiece under their belts.

“The emphasis is to make sure that we execute our details very well, we need to focus on that and whatever is thrown at us we will take it in a stride. We had a look at the conditions and we felt like going with an extra seamer. It doesn’t feel like it would turn that much for this Test,” added Maharaj.

The match starts at 10 AM at Queens Sports Club, and tickets will be available at the gate.

South Africa XI for Zimbabwe Test:

Mathew Breetzke, Tony De Zorzi, Wiaan Mulder, David Bedingham, Lhuan-dre Pretorious, Dewald Brevis, Kyle Verreynne, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj (captain), Codi Yusuf, Kwena Maphaka.