South Africa stand-in captain Aiden Markram is excited to face the spin challenge against Bangladesh as the first of the two-Test series between the two countries starts at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.
He thinks it will be a fantastic opportunity for his young and inexperienced team to learn some new things about the game 鈥榯hey love.鈥�
The Proteas last visited Bangladesh in 2015, when the two Tests were drawn due to rain. Since then, they failed to win a single Test in the subcontinent and managed to draw one.
Markram, who will be leading the side in the absence of regular captain, Temba Bavuma, was hopeful that they were well-equipped to face the music this time.
鈥榃e鈥檇 like to play some good cricket. We feel as a Test side that we have the skills. We have a better option now to face spin bowling in these types of conditions,鈥橫arkram told reporters in the pre-match press conference at Mirpur on Sunday.
鈥楢gain, it鈥檚 an exciting opportunity. We can hopefully put many sessions of good cricket together and hopefully lean towards a positive result. But we don鈥檛 have any doubt that it鈥檚 going to be tough; it鈥檚 going to be very different for us as a team. But again, that鈥檚 the exciting part of it.鈥�
The visitors have a relatively inexperienced side. With Bavuma missing, the frontline batters only have the experience of 102 matches between them, with Markram being the most experienced with 39 matches.
Markram knows that spin will play a big role in deciding the series. He also thinks that it will be a good learning opportunity for them.
鈥楾he spin is a big talking point, especially if you are from South Africa, where you don鈥檛 get these conditions. It鈥檚 an exciting challenge for us to face as a team that is relatively young and didn鈥檛 play that much Test cricket,鈥� he said.
鈥榃hen you鈥檙e exposed to new conditions, you learn new stuff about the game you love. Try to take the lessons with you, moving into the next Test match and also the future subcontinent tours. Fantastic opportunity for us as a team鈥�, he added.
Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who is also their second most-capped player in the team, will come into the fore with the experience of playing in the BPL last season. But as a whole, Markram is confident.
鈥楢s a team, you want to be confident to win the games regardless of wherever you are in the world. So we feel that we鈥檝e got good skills that we can compete with in the subcontinent,鈥� he said.
鈥楤ut like I mentioned, you鈥檝e got to do that for hours to earn a positive result. It doesn鈥檛 happen as quickly in Test cricket as it does in white-ball cricket. Definitely we鈥檙e backing the squad that we have here to get a positive result and backing the skills that we have in the changeroom鈥�, he added.
