Keshav Maharaj Discloses His Game Plan For Batter-Friendly Pakistan Surfaces

South Africa’s left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj understands it won’t be easy to pick wickets on batter-friendly surfaces in Pakistan during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and is more than happy to “build pressure and limit the boundary balls”, allowing fast bowlers to dictate terms. 

In the tri-series ahead of the 50-over event, we got to witness five 300-plus totals in eight innings. The Proteas even lost a match despite scoring 352 in the first innings, with hosts Pakistan hunting down the total with six wickets and as many deliveries remaining. Maharaj was the most economical bowler in the match, finishing with figures of 0/54 in 10 overs.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to see the class within our bowling line-up stand up and sort of defend these scores. Although the totals might seem high in the context of cricket it's probably on par to get 320 these days when batting first and chasing it down in the 44th or 46th over,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Maharaj as saying ahead of South Africa’s game against Afghanistan in Karachi on February 21 (Friday).

"It's a nice test. As cricketers, if you're not tested in your chosen skill, then you're not going to challenge yourself to get better. I think it's a wonderful advert to see the high scores and when the bowler does come out on the right side of things, it shows his class and worth within the team and the world line-up."

"In order to get success, it's about building pressure and just limiting the boundary balls in between. It's probably more of that holding role that one's accustomed to seeing in South Africa. It's not about changing the way I bowl, it's just about changing the field sets that we have. I'm still trying to bowl my best ball to create opportunity, but with probably a more defensive type of field, maybe not carrying a slip for so long. That's basically the sort of mindset."

Talking about his bowling game plan, Maharaj added, "You still want to try to spin the ball because the more revolutions you get on the ball, you create flight and drift. For me, it's about trying to play with the overspin and the sidespin and it's more about the paces that I bowl at so that the batters can't really line you up in terms of using their feet or getting them caught on the crease."

The bowlers might not be extremely pleased with the conditions in Pakistan but the South African batters will surely enjoy their time on these surfaces. In Temba Bavuma, Ryan Rickleton, Tristan Stubbs, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen, South Africa have a dangerous batting unit. 

"They're quite happy with the conditions, but they understand that it's not just rock up and score runs. It's still a process and method. When wickets are in your favour, you train that much harder because you want to make the most of the opportunity that you're presented with. I don't think there's any sense of complacency even though conditions are deemed to be in the batters' favour. You're going to see a supercharged outfit,” said Maharaj.

South Africa’s full squad for Champions Trophy 2025

Temba Bavuma (capt), Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen, Corbin Bosch