South Africa confident in pursuit of World Test Cup final berth

DHAKA, (Reuters) – South Africa are confident of a place in next year’s Test World Cup finals, even if they have to win four of the remaining five Tests in the current two-year cycle, coach Shukri Konrad said yesterday. South Africa moved up to fourth in the 2023-25 ​​WTC standings with a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh on Thursday in the first Test in Dhaka and will qualify for the final at Lord’s next June if they win four Tests over the next few months.

They begin the second Test in Chittagong on Tuesday before returning home for a two-Test series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan later this year.

“We should have a good chance. You have to assess your chances at home,” Konrad said in a virtual press conference. “We came to Bangladesh as underdogs and we got a really good result and will probably go into the next Test match with a little bit of upside. But when we come home, we start as favorites to beat two teams from the subcontinent at home. “We also need to start playing as favorites. It’s probably easier to play the underdog, but I think we’ve got a nice little thing with this unit, but we’re definitely not going to get ahead of ourselves in any way,” he said.

South Africa’s young side have played infrequent Test cricket over the past 24 months but showed their potential with a win in the West Indies in August.

India and Australia, who participated in last year’s WTC finals, top the table for next year’s finals, with Sri Lanka in third place. The top two teams in the league table, which will be decided early next year, decide a one-off final.

“Obviously you have lofty goals that you set for yourself and we all want to get to the finals… or maybe I should change that… we all want to win the World Test Championship. “But we know that at this point we’re going to have to do a hard graft,” Konrad added.

“Of course we’re not going to build any sand castles or have some pie in the sky, but you also have to allow yourself to dream and then give yourself a chance to make that dream come true.”