Wicket keeper BJ Watling moved to New Zealand when he was nine years old, but it hasn’t taken him long to asses the South African conditions on his first trip back to his country of birth.
“They’ll be a lot different to what we faced in Zimbabwe,” he told blackcaps.co.nz ahead of the first Test at Kingsmead on Friday.
“We might get a bit of swing and a bit of seam, along with some more pace on the ball, so we’re looking forward to that challenge and had a good training on Monday in the nets to get a feel for it.
“The first innings might be seamer friendly but, from the bits of footage we’ve seen at Kingsmead, it looks like there’s a bit of assistance for the spinners as well - so we’re preparing to handle both.”
Watling also knows that handling the Protea quicks will be a crucial facet of the two Test series.
“The quality of their pace attack is always up there with the best in the world, so as a batting group we will have to be up to it.
“We’ve got to make those adjustments from Zimbabwe, myself included, but I’m feeling reasonably confident and am hitting the ball well.”
Despite missing captain AB de Villiers and paceman Morne Morkel to injury, Watling believes the locals will head into the series as slight favourites.
“The quality of depth that they have - we know it’s going to be very tough and a huge challenge. But our boys are in a good head space and can’t wait to get into it.
“I’ve been looking forward to playing a Test in Dubran for a while so I’m very excited to be back here and playing the sport that I love.
“I started off playing cricket here but it’s a bit different coming back as a Test cricketer.”
The first Test against South Africa starts at Kingsmead on Friday night at 8pm (NZT) and will be covered live on SKY SPORT and Radio Sport.
You can also keep up to date with all the latest news from the BLACKCAPS camp on our website and our social media channels.
