Jury still out on Shukri Conrad’s Proteas opening pair

Given that it is supposed to be one of the tightest bonds in the batting order, it might seem disconcerting that Aiden Markram didn’t know if he would open the batting with Ryan Rickelton.

“Have I opened with him?” he wondered. He had, but just once. The pair shared an opening partnership of 61 in the first innings of the second Test at Newlands at the beginning of 2025.

Markram batted for 72 minutes, Rickelton stuck around a bit longer — 9hr 5min  more. His innings of 259 made up Shukri Conrad’s mind about the identity of his opening combination for the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

But Markram forgot. You can’t really blame him. The Proteas unofficial vice-captain has played the SA20, Champions Trophy and the marathon IPL since January, so to recall all the details is tricky.

Also in the second innings of that Test, with Rickelton nursing a thigh strain, Markram opened the batting with David Bedingham, with the pair knocking off 58 runs in seven overs to win that match. Then everyone drank a lot of beer.

Markram was at Lord’s with the rest of the Proteas on Sunday, enjoying their first training session there ahead of the WTC final against Australia that starts on Wednesday.

Since Conrad took over, Rickelton is Markram’s third opening partner. His old pal Dean Elgar called time on his international career in 2023. Since then Markram and Tony de Zorzi have walked out together to start the innings 12 times. They shared four half-century partnerships, but were still in the early stages of their combination, when De Zorzi picked up a hamstring injury on the eve of the Newlands Test, handing Rickelton his chance.

De Zorzi, who averaged 32.44 and made one century last season, is now in a fight to earn a spot at Lord’s with Conrad weighing up three options for two spots in the batting order.

The head coach has been loath to share all his thoughts on the composition of the batting line-up, other than to say in his head he knows what he wants.

At face value it doesn’t appear to be the smoothest way to go into a match of such importance. The opening combo has only batted together once and the No 3 spot could go to any of three players.

Former Proteas captain Graeme Smith described the top three that he was a part of during tours to England as being the “engine room” of the batting unit. He opened the batting with Herschelle Gibbs in 2003, Neil McKenzie in 2008 and Alviro Petersen in 2012, all players with more experience than Rickelton.

In addition Gary Kirsten and Hashim Amla, two batting greats, were the No 3 batters on those tours, providing solidity and comfort.

“If the top order does well, it allows the middle order to do their thing if you provide a solid platform,” said Smith.

Markram is aware of the task that awaits him and Rickelton. Theirs is arguably the toughest job, facing up to Australia’s potent new ball combination of Mitchell Starc, who has taken 382 Test wickets, and Josh Hazlewood, who has 279. If they survive that, the Australian skipper Pat Cummins, with 294 Test wickets, follows.

For Markram Lord’s also offers a chance at redemption. Though SA won there in 2022 when Markram was part of the starting team, he batted at No 4 and scored just 16. He was suffering a crisis of confidence at the time and was axed from the squad that toured Australia later that year.

“I completely understood the way things happened and worked out the way they did. Personally, I’d like to go [to Lord’s to] do well because it means the team will do well. That is my driving motivation,” he said.