South African spearhead Dale Steyn says the Proteas’ potent pace attack won’t find Australia’s batting lineup easy to knock over in their keenly-anticipated three-Test cricket series.
The Proteas arrived in Sydney on Sunday to begin the series which includes Tests in Brisbane (November 9-13), Adelaide (November 22-26) and Perth (November 30-December 4).
While former Australia captain Ricky Ponting averaged just 17.50 runs in the last two-Test series between the teams last year in South Africa, Steyn was cautious when asked about knocking over the veteran batsman.
“None of the (Australian) boys will be a knock over, this is going to be another hard tour I think,” he said at Sydney Airport.
Coach Gary Kirsten said they wouldn’t target Ponting or anyone else.
“We’ll have our plans against each players and sometimes those plans work and sometimes they don’t and you have to come up with plan B or C,” Kirsten said.
“Ricky Ponting is a quality player and if you don’t make inroads against him early he’s the type of guy who’s proven he can bat for long periods of time, so we’d have to have something else up our sleeve to be able to get him out.”
The world No.1 South Africans are two places and four points ahead of the Australians in the ICC Test rankings after securing top spot from England when they beat them in England earlier this year.
“I believe we have earned the right to go there with the mantle of being the No.1 Test team through the way we have played this year,” said captain Graeme Smith.
Steyn, who is the No.1 ranked Test bowler, was a member of the Proteas team that won their last Test series in Australia 2-1 back in 2008-09 when he took 18 wickets.
“We enjoyed our tour here last time so hopefully we can repeat that,” Steyn said.
“We’ve played some good cricket recently in England and the team is on a high.
“But it’s a new tour.”
Vernon Philander, ranked second behind Steyn by the ICC, will be bowling in Australia for the first time.
Steyn said he expected Philander, who has snared 63 victims in ten matches at an average of 15.96, to “do fine” in Australian conditions.
Asked about coming up against Mickey Arthur, who is coaching Australia after holding down a similar position with South Africa, Steyn said: “I love Mickey. It’s going to be funny.”
Smith downplayed the significance of Arthur coaching against his former team.
“If I lose sleep over what Mickey is telling Australia, then it is going to affect how we prepare as a team. How we adapt to the conditions will be far more important,” Smith said.
He said batsman-wicketkeeper AB de Villiers had received three weeks of treatment for a back injury and was expected to be ready for the opening Test.