WTC Final: Will Messrs Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon, who have never won ICC Test silverware together, blow South Africa away?

In confronting this colossus with a fledgling batting attack that holds 174 Test caps between them, a meagre 10 in England, lies South Africa captain Temba Bavuma’s greatest challenge and opportunity yet. The lack of English experience and the absence of quality red-ball engagements for over a year will also play on the back of the minds of the SA batters when they take guard on the devious ‘slope’ at the home of cricket.

The Saffers’ 12 Tests were spread across six series of two games each. The stiffer initial tasks against India and the inaugural WTC champions, New Zealand, placed them with two defeats, a draw and one win. However, rallying back against the West Indies and Bangladesh away before wiping out Sri Lanka and Pakistan in pacy home conditions wasn’t exactly a Herculean stretch for South Africa, who will enter Wednesday’s contest on the back of an eight-match unbeaten streak. However, if there were any prospective weaknesses on board during the first Lord’s Test between Australia and South Africa in 113 years, one can be certain the defending champs would have it all worked out with the ball.

Clocking an average of 16.22 wickets per match, the ‘S.C.H.L’ attack stands peerless on the four-bowler Test combinations, with the second-placed James Anderson-Stuart Broad-Ben Stokes-Moeen Ali quadruple amassing 424 wickets in 34 Tests across nine years at 12.74 wickets per game.

Wickets from their combined presence nearly match the South African WTC squad’s total wicket-taking experience (690), polished heavily by Kagiso Rabada (327 wickets) in one half. The lack of English experience will also leave the Saffers bowling only a third in the strength of Test caps in the country, as opposed to the S.C.H.L, ahead of Australia and South Africa’s first neutral Test fixture in 113 years since their Lord’s meeting in 1912.

Despite the propensity of this four-man attack to champion contrasting conditions, Australia’s S.C.H.L has had a limited presence outside their daunting home territory Down Under.

Interestingly, only twice before have Australia fielded all four modern greats together in England across 11 Tests since 2019, picking up 34 wickets at a strike rate of 56.0.

Over 77 percent (400) of the Starc-Cummins-Hazlewood-Lyon combine’s wickets have come in 24 home Tests, 15 of which have fashioned outright Australian victories. Despite their assertive role in the conditioning of Australia’s bowling wheel for a considerable period, the quartet has missed out on collective ICC Test silverware.

The next WTC cycle, starting immediately after the upcoming Lord’s finale, will probably be the final edition where Australia will have the advantage of their own ‘Fab 4’ in the roster. While they have appeared in multiple ‘threes’ in the past, the S.C.H.L. is yet to collectively win either the ICC Test mace or the WTC crown, for Hazlewood missed out on the 2023 final win over India at the Oval due to injury.

The capricious London skies and the dark Dukes ball will beckon more load from the pace trio of the Oz order this week. While Lyon’s nagging presence will keep him in the game on a partly dry strip from a certain point, skipper Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood will be the vicious prongs the Proteas would not necessarily savour.

In the four Tests the trio have played without Lyon in England, Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood have totalled 53 wickets, averaging 30 with a dismissal every 46 deliveries.

Heading into their 35th Test, the Starc-Hazlewood-Cummins trio remains Australia’s most prolific pace attack and joint-fifth on the wicket-taking charts among all pace Test trios ever. Snaring 12.23 wickets per appearance, the all-encompassing triumvirate stands only behind New Zealand’s Trent Boult-Tim Southee-Neil Wagner (13.38 wkts/match) and the fiery yesteryear Windies club of Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall, who reeled in 331 wickets in 26 Tests at 12.73.

Rabada gauntlet

Interestingly, the final will host a rare gathering of five of the top seven highest active Test wicket-takers. While there are sturdy lieutenants in Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi for company, it goes without saying that Rabada would have done best to put his recent recreational drug use setback behind him to help South Africa tail Australia’s deep batting order.

And when the match-up boards are chalked in, Rabada will be primed to take down Australia’s sturdiest bat, Steve Smith, who holds averages north of 58 at Lord’s in nine previous innings. Rabada’s acumen and smarts have accounted for Smith four times in the past, averaging 32. Intriguingly, his 41.8 strike rate in six matches also trumps the Australian attack at the venue.

But for four of Australia’s bulwarks, an enticing chance of collective glory awaits, nevertheless. Will the S.C.H.L school Temba Bavuma and Co. on the way to defend their status at the top of the championship, or will the underdog South African attack upset the Aussie applecart at the home of cricket?