Horses for courses as Proteas mull over team selection

Proteas' interim coach Malibongwe Maketa confirmed that conditions will dictate the team composistion in the first Test against Australia in Brisbane.

South Africa's cricket season gets underway at the iconic Gabba on Saturday, where they face an in-form Australian outfit who are fresh off a dominating 2-0 series win over the West Indies.

Speaking ahead of the Test Maketa told IOL that he and captain Dean Elgar will base their decision to carry an extra batter or bowler on the pitch.

"If there is a lot of grass and it's really assisting bowlers, we are going to need to carry an extra batter to get us to the magical 400-450 total," said Maketa.

"If it's a tough wicket where you will have to work hard to get 20 wickets, you are going to need the extra bowler and trust the top order to get the 450.

"We are aware that we are not here to protect anyone, if we are going out there and have to knuckle down and bat we will go with six batters, if we feel we've got enough in the wicket for us to go through them with three bowlers and a spinner then we will make the decision that is best for the team."

With the South African top order under pressure to score runs and the bowling unit - led by the mercurial Kagiso Rabada and the dangerous Anrich Nortje - arguably the more dangerous of the two skillsets, an extra batter would perhaps be considered the conservative option.

Maketa went on to compare the bounce at the Gabba to that of the Wanderers in Johannesburg, but insisted that the seam attack won't be wooed by the "sexy bounce".

"The Wanderers offers the same, more or less, where you can get carried away with the sexy bounce and you're going to be ineffective," he continued.

"So we have been working hard on making sure we hit the fuller length and make the batsmen play."