Proteas coach Shukri Conrad close to finalising XI for WTC final

Proteas coach Shukri Conrad is keeping his cards close to his chest regarding the playing XI he will select for the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s next week.

Right from the start of his Proteas coaching career, Conrad has made a name for himself with his bold selections and for confirming his playing XI well before the start of a Test match. However, this time around, the 58-year-old is yet to finalise the team.

He did, however, reveal that he has a good idea of how the XI will look and that he will wait until arriving at Lord’s to further assess the conditions before making any confirmations.

At present, one or two spots remain in question — specifically within the bowling attack. Will it be Lungi Ngidi or Dane Paterson who joins Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj and Wiaan Mulder?

“We're probably getting ever closer (to finalising the playing XI),” Conrad said on Tuesday.

“We'll have a really good idea once we get to Lord’s and have a look at the wicket. I haven’t even looked at the forecast yet, but I can’t see it changing too much from the XI I’ve got in my head at the minute.”

The Proteas arrived in Arundel in southern England over the weekend and have since managed to hold a pair of training sessions. The side was scheduled to play Day 1 of their four-day warm-up against Zimbabwe on Tuesday. However, due to inclement weather, there was no play at the Arundel Castle Cricket Ground.

Conrad expressed disappointment over the lost day's play, stressing the need for as much preparation as possible ahead of the final.

“It wouldn’t be the UK if we didn’t have this, you know. Fortunately, we’ve had two really good days of training, a full day on Monday. It is what it is,” said Conrad.

“It was always going to be a rest day for the bowlers on Tuesday. We were hoping to win the toss and bat. But I’m really happy with the preparations from the first couple of days.

“Hopefully we get some play Wednesday and we can go a little bit later so that the batters spend some time at the wicket, and the bowlers get more miles in their legs. That’s pretty much what this four-day game was going to be about anyway.

"Batters taking control of their prep — how much they want from it, what they want from it. I’m not going to determine that for them.”

Despite concerns about players switching formats after returning from the IPL last week, Conrad remains confident.

“Not too worried about coming from different formats. Guys adapt very quickly. So I’m comfortable with where we’re at,” said Conrad.

“It’s not ideal, but you come to expect this. This is part of dealing with what could be thrown up. Whether we have another day of rain tomorrow, we’ve just got to make it work as best we can,” he concluded.

Day 2 is scheduled to get underway on Wednesday at 11.30am.