When the 22 players line up at Lord’s for the third ICC World Test Championship final, the statistical lopsidedness hanging over the Australian and South African contingents will be hard to neglect. In all likelihood, it will spur a reflection on the sheer might of a legendary quartet that has carried Australia’s vaunted bowling legacy with even greater spirits since the second half of the previous decade.
Despite their respective Test debuts in the early 2010s, it was not until late 2017 that Australia could tether the tenacious Mitchell Starc, the irrepressible Pat Cummins, a relentless Josh Hazlewood and ‘GOAT’ Nathan Lyon together. For a series of varying injuries, combinations and other reasons before and since their first initiation against England in the 2017 Ashes at the Gabba, it has only taken the Starc-Cummins-Hazlewood-Lyon union 32 Tests to forge arguably the most successful Test bowling attack of all time. It will be hard for any opposition to shrug off those astute accumulations – 522 wickets between them in only 32 of the 70 Tests Australia have played in the last eight years.
In confronting this colossus with a fledgling batting attack that holds 174 Test caps between them, a meagre 10 in England, lies South Africa captain Temba Bavuma’s greatest challenge and opportunity yet. The lack of English experience and the absence of quality red-ball engagements for over a year will also play on the back of the minds of the SA batters when they take guard on the devious ‘slope’ at the home of cricket.
The Saffers’ 12 Tests were spread across six series of two games each. The stiffer initial tasks against India and the inaugural WTC champions, New Zealand, placed them with two defeats, a draw and one win. However, rallying back against the West Indies and Bangladesh away before wiping out Sri Lanka and Pakistan in pacy home conditions wasn’t exactly a Herculean stretch for South Africa, who will enter Wednesday’s contest on the back of an eight-match unbeaten streak. However, if there were any prospective weaknesses on board during the first Lord’s Test between Australia and South Africa in 113 years, one can be certain the defending champs would have it all worked out with the ball.
Clocking an average of 16.22 wickets per match, the ‘S.C.H.L’ attack stands peerless on the four-bowler Test combinations, with the second-placed James Anderson-Stuart Broad-Ben Stokes-Moeen Ali quadruple amassing 424 wickets in 34 Tests across nine years at 12.74 wickets per game.