South Africa coach Shukri Conrad has ruled out making drastic changes after his team’s 214-run defeat to Australia in the first Test at Kingsmead, but said his players must improve if they are to fight back in the three-match series.South Africa, who beat Australia in last year’s World Test Championship final in London, suffered the defeat on Tuesday. Conrad said the result did not mean the team needed to question everything it had done well, but admitted there was room for improvement.“We just lost a cricket test match. It doesn’t mean that you’ve now got to go soul-searching and questioning all the things that we’ve done really well and are doing really well. We just need to get bloody better,” he told reporters on Wednesday.“We obviously need to look at how we can improve the side without being knee-jerk in our decision-making and panicky. We need to show composure.”“The question is always, will it make the boat go faster if we make changes, or will it slow the boat down?” he asked.Conrad indicated that some changes could still be made, with fast bowler Kagiso Rabada close to returning after a hamstring injury that has kept him out since June. Changes in the batting order are also possible.“We keep talking about the batting because that’s where we felt we let ourselves down the most,” he said.Conrad said South Africa needed to assess the reasons behind their dismissals, which he placed in three categories: technical, tactical and mental. He felt the mental aspect had played a major role in the team’s batting struggles.“Dismissals in batting sit in one of three places. They are technical, tactical or mental. If we’re brutally honest, a lot of our dismissals sat in the mental corner. Is that an easier fix than technical and tactical? Probably not. So we need to see our guys pull up fresh enough.”South Africa showed some resistance on the final day as they tried to save the Test by defending against Australia’s attack. However, after holding on for almost two hours, they lost wickets in quick succession and were bowled out for 206 in their second innings. Aiden Markram was the only South African batter to score more than 50 in the match.The defeat ended South Africa’s run of 15 Tests without a loss. They will look to level the series in the second Test, which begins on Sunday at St George’s Park in Gqeberha.
