South Africa head into the World Test Championship 2025 final with quiet confidence, said coach Shukri Conrad ahead of the summit clash. The coach Shukri Conrad has hoped that the local crowd will support them over the Australian team.
Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s Test coach, has hit back at criticism of his team reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) final after a cycle in which they faced neither Australia nor England, and played only 12 Tests. They were the first team to book a spot at Lord’s after they reeled off six successive wins and qualified with a game to spare.
South Africa under coach Shukri Conrad became the first team to make it to the World Test Championship (WTC) Final in the 2023-25 cycle after they beat Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion. Notably, the summit clash will be played at the iconic Lords ground. Interestingly, this will be another opportunity for them to win an ICC event that they have not won since the 1998 ICC Knockout Trophy.
South Africa journey to WTC finals in 2024-25
Shukri Conrad is confident that SA can defeat Australia in WTC 2023-25 finale
South African Test team will be banking on the support from English fans against Australia in the World Test Championship 2025 Final, said coach Shukri Conrad. Speaking to the media two days before the summit clash against Pat Cummins’ Australia, Shukri Conrad said that his team was quietly confident of beating the defending champions.
South Africa reached the final of the World Test Championship for the first time on the back of a strong performance at home. Shukri Conrad’s team has a fantastic bowling line-up, who are expected to make a mark with the Dukes ball in the summit clash. Shukri Conrad said that while there were slight jitters in the side, which has not played at Lord’s a lot, he was hoping to get the adrenaline going with the help of a crowd that hopefully supports the Proteas instead of their bitter rivals – Australia.
“We will be enjoying the majority of the support, all the English will be supporting us. It is a huge occasion, we cannot wish it away. We are making sure that we settle in. Rather than wishing it away, we talk through these things. The excitement levels are rising up. I would rather be part of it than not,” Shukri Conrad said at the pre-match press conference.
South Africa have called upon Stuart Broad as the bowling consultant for this match. Broad called time on his career after the Ashes 2024. Shukri Conrad said that the coaching staff had a productive chat with Broad and hoped that they put the knowledge to use in the 5-day affair.
“We had a productive chat with Stuart Broad, it was really enlightening. If I had not called time at 10:30 pm, we would not have gotten up,” Shukri Conrad chuckled.
Asked about South Africa’s position in the growing world of T20 leagues, Shukri Conrad said that he and his team held the format close to their hearts. The coach’s response was contradictory to what the team had shown over the last 24 months.
In the current cycle, South Africa decided not to send a single top player to a Test series (vs New Zealand) because the schedule clashed with SA20, the country’s premier T20 competition. However, Shukri Conrad stressed that South Africa respected Test cricket and that they wanted the red-ball format to remain the pinnacle of the sport.
“Lord’s is the home of cricket. We hold Test cricket very dearly. Our fixture list might not speak to that, but our players hold it very close to their hearts. Test cricket can coexist with the other formats and we need to make sure that it does coexist. But we need to make sure that Test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game. Every nation needs to be included when Test cricket is spoken about. It is the best breeding ground for cricketers in any format,” Shukri Conrad stated.
WTC Final 2025 will be the second summit clash that South Africa will play in two years. In 2024, they lost the T20 World Cup final against India from a winning position and now face Australia at Lord’s. Asked about the tag of ‘chokers’, Shukri Conrad calmly said that it was unfair to brand the current group for the failures of the past.
He said that the team had been doing well and were consistently featuring in the final four of all the ICC tournaments. Shukri Conrad said that he hoped that his team would pull one over Australia in the final red-ball match, set to start on June 11.
“It is unfair to burden this group with anything that has happened before. You cannot wish this away. We want to win an ICC event, and we do not wear any tag coming into the final. The more finals you play, the better your odds of winning, and we have a chance here. Hopefully this time we break that duck,” Shukri Conrad concluded.
South Africa have been here before, and they know better than anyone else that nothing, at this stage, can be taken for granted. But after all the teasing and trembling of yore, especially in front of final frontiers, they will also recognize the need and the necessity for a steely display. All while Australia prance and prowl in their preferred habitat.
And in this year/season of barren streaks being snapped and of trophy thirsts being quenched, it feels poetic that South Africa, of all possible permutations and combinations, are back in the country where this sequence – of coming close but not ending up with the cigar – began. Face to face with the foe that foiled them more than 25 years ago.
History, of course, cannot be tweaked. Nor can it be altered. But this could be a watershed moment in itself. For the present and the future. A game that could define a generation of South African cricketers, and immortalize them. A match that could, considering where it is, and given who it is against, inject so much belief into Protean veins that they will feel they have the world at their feet, all over again.
That was what that afternoon in Birmingham was meant and supposed to be. And that, South Africa will hope, is what these next few days in London are. South Africa would like to win the WTC final 2025 and clinch their second major ICC title, having won the Champions Trophy in 1998.
Also Read: ICC WTC 2023-25: “We Are Playing For A Trophy”- Mark Boucher’s Direct Jibe Ahead Of Final