Sarel Erwee is embracing and relishing the chance to open for South Africa in a Test series in England. The left-hander believes it’s an opportunity for him to learn the true trades of batting at the top in the game’s most challenging format.
The 32-year-old also revealed he is in awe of the opposition’s great new-ball pairing James Anderson and Stuart Broad. However, he isn’t at all intimidated at the prospect of facing them again for the series-deciding fixture at The Oval from September 8.
“It’s tricky but you wouldn’t want it any other way as an opening batter,”
Erwee was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“This is where you learn your Test cricket and what you’re about. To face these guys in their conditions is tricky but a nice experience.”
Erwee has been one of the positives for the Proteas from the first two Test matches of the three-match series standing at 1-1. Three innings into the trip, the left-hander has struck 101 runs, with the best of 73. But it isn’t about the runs in the middle as much about the technical aptitude on display from someone only six matches into his Test career for South Africa.
The highlight of the series so far from Erwee was his critical half-century in the first-innings at Lord’s, where his knock spanning 146 deliveries helped the tourists counter the new ball against an England attack designed to exploit it and made life substantially easier for the rest of the South African batting unit.
Erwee said the key to his fruitful series so far has been accepting the challenge of the conditions on offer and adjusting his game accordingly. The left-hander says he knows the ball will beat his bat a number of times given the amount of seam and swing on display, but he has looked to keep his head still and wait for scoring opportunities.
“In these conditions, the ball moves and swings and nips and you know it’s going to do that. It’s almost like going to India where the ball turns and you know it’s going to turn.”
“When you see a lot of movement, sometimes that plays on your mind a little bit. The challenge is to stay in the moment and not let the one or two balls that swing a lot play on your mind,”
he added.
