Pattinson knows that this tour will be challenging for both the batsmen and the bowlers

Australia pace bowler James Pattinson has admitted that the batting depth of the current South Africa squad is more much “daunting” than he thought it would be, now that Jean Paul Duminy is set to come in at number seven.

With the number one Test team ranking on the line in their upcoming three-Test series against the Proteas, Australia will have to look to dismiss captain Graeme Smith and his opening partner Alviro Petersen as early into their innings as possible.

But, even if they manage to do that, there will still be the problem of Hashim Amla, who almost scored 1000 runs against England over the summer and, as if that weren’t enough, veteran batsmen Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and Jacques Rudolph are all capable of making big scores on any given day.

However, de Villiers’ place in the squad is still under threat due to the ankle and back injuries he picked up during the recently concluded International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20.

If de Villiers is not medically cleared to play, then backup wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile will take his spot on the batting lineup.

Despite having an all-star batting lineup on paper, Pattinson noted that all great batsmen had their weak points as well.

“Any batsman is vulnerable if you bowl well, the Gabba and the WACA is going to give some good assistance for that bouncer and it’s all about getting your plans against the right batsmen. We’ve definitely touched on that in the last couple of weeks… about how to set different batsmen up. Amla has been in great form, Graeme Smith has been in great form and you look at them and they’re probably their key at the top of the order, as well as Kallis. It’s a pretty long batting line-up and a pretty daunting task as a bowler but something that I’m looking forward to. These challenges don’t come around very often. Hopefully we can knock them over and get the wood on them,” Pattinson said.

Pattinson stated that the key to unsettling the South African middle order batsmen was to dismiss captain Smith early into his innings.

“They build their innings around Smith. He’s been a fantastic player for a number of years and their captain as well. I think if you can get on top of the captain early on, especially early on in this series, it brings the other players down. If we can try and get on top of that opening partnership, get early wickets, that’s the key for us, to get a look at Amla and Kallis pretty early with the new rock,” Pattinson added.

Australia’s pace attack of Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle are going to have to bowl as consistently and aggressively as South Africa’s pace trio of Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn, who are arguably the best three quick bowlers in cricket at the moment.

Pattinson admitted to being stunned when watching Steyn bowl for the first time, and noted that he had padded his game behind the Steyn’s ability to swing the ball in whichever direction he wanted to.

“I remember the first time I went to South Africa and I watched Dale Steyn bowl and it was unbelievable watching him bowl live, he’s a fantastic athlete and it’s fantastic the way he goes about it, his aggression and he swings the ball at good pace. He’s someone that I would like to bowl like one day and have his record. It’s going to be pretty hard to do because he’s such a good bowler. Our batsmen are going to have to be on their best games to try and combat him and Morkel and Philander, who’s almost the missing man in this, nobody is talking about him but his record over the last year has been fantastic. There’ll be a bit more pressure on the bowlers to bowl well and look after our batsmen as well,” Pattinson said.