Proteas tick the boxes for new coach Shukri Conrad

New Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad was proud of the effort produced by his side in their first Test series under him, after they completed a 2-0 series win over the West Indies with a massive 284-run win in the second Test at the Wanderers on Saturday.

Having won the first Test in Centurion a week earlier by 87 runs, it was a comfortable series victory for the Proteas overall, although there is still plenty to work on going forward.

Asked after the match how he would rate the performances of the teams batting, fielding and bowling departments, Conrad gave an honest answer.

“On the bowling and fielding front I would say it’s closer to a 10 than a nine. On the batting front we knew that it’s a work in progress. So if I were to be harsh I would probably score it a six,” admitted Conrad.

“But I am really happy that we’ve got two century makers over the two-match series and that we posted over 300 on three occasions. So I am looking for the small wins there.”

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Conrad claimed that he had a number of things he wanted to test and get out of the series, especially considering they would not be back in five day action until the end of the year when they host India.

“I had an idea of what I wanted out of this series, and this is not taking the series lightly. I wanted to see a few guys in the heat of battle when the pressure was on. What they were like in the team environment,” said Conrad.

“The team has come from quite a dark space, the Aussie tour, and just seeing how guys reacted when we tested certain things. So from that perspective I am really happy with the growth and what I saw and now we have quite a few months to build.”

Brave brand

In the final Test the Proteas played a brave brand of cricket, which captain Temba Bavuma had alluded to before the start of the series, and Conrad was asked whether they would be trying to model their play in the future on the Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes led ‘Bazball’ going forward.

“I think it is player and character dependent. The way McCullum and Stokes have gone about it it’s made Test cricket exciting. You want to watch them. But I think trying to emulate them you have to be very wary of that,” said Conrad.

“Our conditions are different and our players are at different stages of development. So I think I have to bring that along slowly and then match the selections and characters to the kind of cricket that we want to play.”

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With such a long break for Conrad until the team’s next Test series, he was hoping to be involved in a number of South African A and Emerging team tours, where he would continue to monitor some of the players.

“We are optimistic that we will have a couple of A team and emerging tours coming in and going out (of the country). So I am going to have to tap in to all of those spaces,” explained Conrad.

“We have a couple of young bucks here that will probably form part of those A sides to continue the growth process. So I will be a part of those sides without a shadow of a doubt.”