LONDON: Australia will have to dust off the cobwebs but are still fancied to successfully defend their World Test Championship crown against equally ring-rusty South Africa in the final at Lords, starting on Wednesday.

The five-day clash comes on the heels of a plethora of limited overs cricket over the last five months and both teams have been scrambling to prepare for a high-profile return to the red-ball game.

Australia have not played a Test since beating Sri Lanka in Galle in February when they made sure of a top-two finish in the standings from results for the 2023-25 WTC cycle.

South Africa were assured of top place when they won their last Test against Pakistan at home in January to book a first-ever finals appearance.

It came on the back of a run of seven successive wins, but the fact they did not play against the Aussies or England has seen their achievement dismissed as too easy.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan said they reached the final “on the back of beating pretty much nobody,” which was a result of the lopsided Test schedule where Australia, England, and India dominate and South Africa elect to play more financially lucrative limited-overs internationals.

But an upset win for South Africa could change that.

“It’s the biggest thing in this team’s existence. It’s the biggest thing for South African cricket at the moment,” said their coach Shukri Conrad.

Australia have been warming up with training sessions at Beckenham in Kent as they grappled with selection choices before finalising their line-up for the showpiece on Tuesday.

Marnus Labuschagne will open the batting for Australia and Josh Hazlewood has been selected in the bowling line-up, captain Pat Cummins said on the eve of the game.

Labuschagne has been moved up the order to accommodate the return of Cameron Green, who underwent back surgery in October and was ruled out of the home season, while Hazlewood is fit again after a calf injury to replace of Scott Boland.

“Cam Green has been coming back in great form in the last few weeks and we thought he deserved a spot in the batting line-up. We thought three probably suits him best,” Cummins told a press conference. “For Marnus moving one spot up, it’s not too different to batting at three.

“He’s done well here in England in the past.”

Meanwhile, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma admitted all-rounder Wiaan Mulder lacked experience at the top of the batting order after picking him to bat at number three in the WTC final.

Mulder has only batted twice in Test matches at number three, making 15 against Sri Lanka in November and five against Pakistan in January, but he is now preparing to face a formidable Australia attack featuring Cummins and Mitchell Starc.

South Africa have impressive depth in batting, with wicket-keeper Kyle Verre­ynne, who has hit four Test centuries, dro­p­ping down to number seven in the order followed by Marco Jansen, who is a useful batsman as well as a dangerous bowler.

Bavuma acknowledged the 27-year-old Mulder was “quite young in the position” of number three.

But the skipper told reporters at Lord’s that Mulder “has grown in the last two years in the red-ball format”.

“It is about giving him a lot more confidence and allowing him to do what he does best,” he said. “He has an opportunity in a pressure situation and he can take comfort in the fact that the guys are backing him and we just want him to go out and play his natural game.”

Lungi Ngidi was chosen ahead of Dane Paterson even though his fellow paceman is used to the conditions at Lord’s after playing English county cricket there for Middlesex this season.

Bavuma said it was a tough decision but said he believed the combination of Ngidi and the medium-paced Mulder would complement the strike power of Kagiso Rabada and Jansen.

South Africa are backing Rabada to bring extra motivation to the game after serving a one-month drugs ban.

Rabada tested positive for cocaine in January, which was only revealed in April, and served a one-month ban while competing in the Indian Premier League.

It has been an embarrassing episode for the 30-year-old Rabada, second in the world Test bowling rankings, but Bavuma said he expected it would fire him up for the match.

“It’s definitely a motivation. It’s been a couple of weeks now that everything has unfolded,” said Bavuma. “He had a conversation with the team and put himself on the spot for further questioning from any of the players. As far as we are concerned, that’s kind of behind us, we really come here with the focus of what we need to do.”

Teams (from):

SOUTH AFRICA: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Temba Bavuma (captain), Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wicket-keeper), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi

AUSTRALIA: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wicket-keeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2025