Follow UsA full-strength South Africa are set to face the West Indies in a two-Test series, which is crucial for their standings in the World Test Championship (WTC) table.
Lately, Test cricket has been on the back burner for the Proteas, with T20 cricket getting priority over Test tours, like the one against New Zealand last year. However, the South African team look excited for the challenge ahead.
Tony de Zorzi, the new Proteas opener after Dean Elgar, seems to be liking his time in Trinidad.
“It's a beautiful place with beautiful people who are really friendly and welcoming. The lady in the kitchen here always calls us, 'My baby', and stuff,” De Zorzi said.
However, the enjoyment might turn into serious business soon as de Zorzi will be up against a West Indies attack against whom he averages just 28.71 after playing two Tests back home in South Africa. Moreover, he’s also filling the spot for Elgar, who was one of the best batters of the Proteas Test team for quite some time. The good thing is that de Zorzi realises that.
“I've got big shoes to fill,” he said.
“The guy before me [Elgar] was unbelievable. So it's really exciting to be batting with Aiden. It's cool that it's a familiar face.”
For de Zorzi, the key to succeeding on the tour is learning from his old experience against the Windies and diligently working out his plans against the bowlers.
“Having played against them [West Indies] before, I have a feeling of what their guys will try to do to try to get me out,” De Zorzi remarked.
"So I'm practising the ways I would counter that, and then focusing on my strengths and making sure that I'm there for long periods of time. With regards to intensity, I've tried my best to acclimatise. It's my first international tour, so I want to do well.
"As you get older, you dive into yourself more, and not on the superficial level. You get more comfortable with things you are good at and not so good at. Being brutally honest about it allows you to grow as a cricketer and as a person.
"It's about trying to be more consistent as a person on and off the field. But also allowing myself to be who I am off the field; being comfortable in who I am and allowing, hopefully, my cricket to do the talking.”
The first Test begins Wednesday (August 7) at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
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