ABU DHABI // If the Jacques Kallis we have seen until now was jaded, nothing can help Test bowlers.
The South Africa all-rounder has not played cricket since his stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League finished in May.
He took his first significant break from the game after that and has returned, ominously for Pakistan’s bowlers, refreshed.
“It’s been probably what I needed,” Kallis said ahead of the first Test on Monday in Abu Dhabi. “After the IPL, I felt like I wanted a break. After 17-18 years, just felt I needed a good three months away, so its been a pleasurable period where I could refresh my mind.”
Kallis, who turns 38 on Wednesday, did not watch a ball of cricket in that time. He played a lot of golf, spent time with the family and generally did, what he said, normal people do.
But so ready did he look in the nets and the practice game in Sharjah, Graeme Smith said he felt Kallis had already played a whole season’s worth.
Alongside Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, Kallis has been at the forefront of South Africa’s successes against spin. They will be tested again; Pakistan might play three spinners if, as Kallis said, the pitch is given to turn.
“As a team, we probably play spin as well as anybody,” he said. “Our record shows that. We’ve done well in the subcontinent for many a year now.
“Our players have good game plans against it and we’ve scored big runs and got good results. The guys are confident going in to play on these wickets.”
Murmurs from the Pakistan camp on Saturday suggested they were unhappy the surface looked a little seam-friendly, but that is unlikely to be the surface’s nature.
Whether or not they play three spinners or two with two fast bowlers, the focus still will be on Saeed Ajmal.
Although he picked up 10 wickets against them in Cape Town earlier this year, Ajmal has struggled against South Africa otherwise; in 132 overs spread across the three remaining Tests, he has only four wickets.
Not that he worries about things like that. Ajmal is too chirpy to let things like the identity of an opponent get in the way of his business of taking wickets.
“It’s nothing different, but I will try my best,” he said. “Every day is a new day for me and every match is a new match. I try my best in every match and want to perform in the same manner as I did in the last one without extra pressure.
“I will go into the Test with 100 per cent confidence. I have only one target and that is to take more and more wickets. Be it Smith or Kallis, I bowl as I bowl.”
In contrast to South Africa, Pakistan have a few decisions to make beyond their bowling attack. They are likely to give a Test debut to the opener Ahmed Shahzad, while they must also decide whether to persist with Asad Shafiq or bring in a left-hander in the middle in Umar Amin.
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Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
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