Exclusive: “The Ambitions are to Get to the Final,” says Shukri Conrad Ahead of Bangladesh

Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad reckons that his team has every chance to make it to next year’s World Test Championship final.

MATTHEW BREETZKE IS THE NEXT BATTER UP

Proteas Test coach, Shukri Conrad, has announced his squad for the upcoming two-match series against Bangladesh in Dhaka and Chattogram next month.

Matthew Breetzke, a 25-year-old batter who has been dominating South African domestic cricket for a while has been included in the side for the second time in his career following his maiden call-up in July for the Test trip to the Caribbean.

The 25-year-old further proved to Conrad that he is ready for Test cricket when he smashed a mature 213-ball 129 during the South Africa A Four-Day match against Sri Lanka A last month.

In an exclusive interview with SportsBoom.com, Conrad clarified that Breetzke is cover for any of the main batters purely because of the youngster's ability to bat anywhere in the top six.

"I made it very clear to Matthew when we took him to the West Indies that he's the next batter up and nothing has changed," said Conrad.

"It was great to see him coming in and perform the way that he did in that 'A' series. He knows he's the next batter up. He's got to wait his turn pretty much. I don't know what more to say other than that he is the next batter up.”

WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP AMBITIONS

The Proteas will get together at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria before they depart for Bangladesh on 16 October for the series that gets underway on 21 October.

With South Africa's sitting at sixth position in the World Test Championship standings, Conrad knows that the Bangladesh series is of utmost importance as the team still has the chance to qualify for next year's final at Lord's cricket Ground.

However, Conrad is also aware that Bangladesh are fresh off a historic series victory in Pakistan and are currently putting in a fight against India in India.

"The ambitions are to get there (to the final). We are obviously developing as a team, but we can develop and win at the very same time. With the necessary experience, I think you'll see this team get better all the time. What needs to happen, we have six Test matches, I still think we need to win five of them, but it will be really tough," said Conrad.

"When we play well, we will have enough to have the results. That is the end goal and not the immediate goal. We know every time we walk out there, we want to win a Test match and we believe we can win a Test match.”

“If we get to the end of the cycle and we're in the top two then great. It's certainly an ambition of ours. We do understand and we are fully aware that it will a lot of good cricket, we'll have to be really good in every aspect.”

"We're going to go to Bangladesh where it's in foreign conditions where very few of these guys have played before and play against a very tough unit there and try get results," he added.