Lack of Test preparation no bother for South Africa ahead of World Test Championship final

A lack of preparation for the World Test Championship final will be no problem for South Africa as they get set to take on Australia at Lord’s, opener Aiden Markram said on Sunday.

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South Africa last played a Test in January when they beat Pakistan to book a place in the WTC final and their hopes of an extensive warm-up last week were stymied as their four-day match with Zimbabwe was largely rained out.

"A lot of our series have been two Test series, so in order to win them, you can't start slow, so I suppose there's a little bit of that that's helped us along the way," Markram told a press conference at Lord's, where the WTC final begins on Wednesday.

"We know the importance of starting well, trying to get ahead of the game early and how important each session is going to be, because there's no second dip at it.

"We have to make sure we hit the ground running and are nice and sharp come day one," he added.

South Africa qualified for the final with a seven-match winning streak but also having played seven Tests fewer than Australia, who are defending champions.