Ed Cowan sees South Africa as clearly the best Test team in the world but is not convinced its bowlers will be as potent in Australia as they were in England.
Cowan led an Australia A side in two rain-affected, drawn Tests against the England Lions last month, top-scoring for his side in both matches to consolidate his place alongside David Warner in the Test lineup.
The Proteas defeated England's first XI 2-0 at the same time and, though impressed with what he saw, Cowan feels their form in the northern hemisphere gives little indication as to how they will fare in the upcoming three-Test series in Australia.
"They're obviously the best team in the world," Cowan told Grandstand. "I've thought that for a while.
"It was nice to get close hand experience of watching them closely.
"But the conditions are very, very different in Australia than they are in England.
"Their bowlers bowled well in English conditions. The challenge for them is to come here and do the same."
Though the Gabba and WACA pitches would appear suited to Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, Cowan said there is also a high-risk factor, as well as potential great reward, on these tracks.
"They're both wickets that you need to bowl in the right areas," Cowan said. "The margin for error is smaller.
"If you get it right it can be very dangerous for the batsmen but if you get it wrong the ball can go all round the park.
"There's more margin for length error in England than there is on those two wickets.
"The ball spun for (Imran) Tahir which might not happen here - he cleaned up the (English) tail because of it.
"It's a new tour, they haven't seen a lot of our Test cricketers before and I think they're going to be really pushed by an Australian team that's been playing some strong cricket."
Tags: sport, cricket, australia, tas First posted September 23, 2012 13:09:09
No comments:
Post a Comment