Confident that their tweakers are equipped to handle Indian wickets in the tri-series involving the hosts and Australia A, South Africa A captain Dean Elgar today said that Proteas now boast of quality spinners, who have taken to international cricket like "duck to water".
South Africa begin their tri-series campaign in the lung opener against Australia A here tomorrow and Elgar is confident of his spin attack.
"If you look at the way cricket is played back home, the wickets are pretty hard and prepared for fast bowlers. In the past we had few spinners like Paul Harris and Paul Adams and those guys were pretty much containers for the side. It is easy in the sub-continent (for spinners) as it is conducive for slow bowling," Elgar told reporters.
"Tournaments like this will encourage younger guys to learn the art and do well and put their hand up back home and try and learn to play on those wickets. Those were the days we had one or two spin bowlers in South Africa but now we have five or six back home and put up their hands and have taken to International cricket like a duck to water. It is huge as the game has changed and evolved now," he added.
Elgar, who was part of the senior Test side that toured Bangladesh, believes the 'A' side is battle ready for the tri-series.
"Our preparation has been pretty good. We have lot of experienced guys in our wings. We do have lot of international players who had played T20 and one day cricket tours for South Africa. There are pretty match lot of fringe players. In the bowling unit we got pace bowlers and spinners," he said.
"Young spinner Eddie Leie is talented and has displayed lot of promise. The preparation has been very good and our Coach Vincent Barnes, who had been here quite a few times with our national side have trained our players in a camp in June," he added.
On the MA Chiadambaram wicket, the captain said, "It looks quite a slow wicket from watching lot of the IPL games. I do not think it is going to change too much. Tomorrow is the decision making time and not today.
