The Proteas must land a killer first punch in their Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka in Centurion to stand a chance of winning the match according to Aiden Markram.
Entering the contest on the back of only one win in nine Tests, it was a 2-0 home series defeat to Sri Lanka that triggered their poor run of form.
Markram, who was part of the team that flopped last year, says it’s tough to pinpoint exactly where it went wrong for coach Mark Boucher’s team.
The 26-year-old opening batsman says: “We touched on what happened last time they were here. It’s hard to pinpoint a reason why we went 2-0 down.
“At the end of the day, our skills weren’t up to scratch and we didn’t perform like we needed to perform to win the series. And that’s what it comes down to.
“A big positive is that we haven’t played Test cricket in a while, so the hunger levels are up there…”
But he has the solution, adding: “It’s about getting ourselves into positions where we can win the game – you don’t want to be chasing the game. It will be about hitting the ground running. We maybe started slightly slow in the past.
“But we’ve addressed and our focus will now be to put on performances that can allow us to win the game.”