South Africa might be getting back to where they want to be

Imagine being teleported back into the 2000s. Every series and ICC event casts South Africa as one of the favourites. The Proteas don’t have a lot of tournament-winning history to draw inspiration from. However, the talent at their disposal means that they enter every contest knowing that they can win it, irrespective of the opposition and the conditions.

There are top-quality batters across the board. Grafters, nuggety grinders, stroke-makers, zealous youngsters – South Africa have it all. They also have an enviable pace battery, which despite being shuffled due to impending retirements and arrival of new talents, keeps getting better. Almost all of these cricketers know what it means to play for South Africa and when they step onto the field, nothing matters to them more than donning the green and catapulting their side to victory.

Now, cast your mind to the mid and late 2010s – an era were South Africa largely lived off their past laurels and furiously rummaged to rekindle a formula that worked previously. Most of those attempts were futile. A host of players left for seemingly greener pastures and those who stayed just didn’t seem capable of returning South Africa to where they once were.

The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, which was dominated by the constant to-and-fro around AB de Villiers was a perfect example. At that event, everything apart from cricket dominated the back pages, meaning that it wasn’t a surprise they crumbled under pressure. In the longest format, too, they slipped to a rare home series defeat against Sri Lanka and were thumped by India away from home.

Faf du Plessis, who was at the helm for a lot of those defeats, left his post soon after – not only signalling how the Proteas required a new leader but also indicating how tough the gig had become. Captaining South Africa has never been easy, considering the socio-political situation in the country. But this, compounded by their cricketing woes, made it feel a lot more difficult than it once was.

This year, things have taken a turn for the better. Under Dean Elgar, they fought back and defeated India in a keenly-contested Test series at home. They then carried that form and managed a stalemate against the reigning ICC World Test Championship winners New Zealand away from home.

In white-ball cricket, too, they’ve made giant strides. They haven’t played a lot of ODIs and T20Is, with five matches across those formats against India. They’ve won each of those and while it has been sandwiched by an unexpected ODI series defeat to Bangladesh, there have been signs that this is the revival South African cricket has been craving for the past few years.

Whenever talking about renaissance, there are a couple of non-negotiable aspects. The first revolves around whether a team is able to leave an imprint against any kind of opposition and in any kind of situation. The second is whether those not in frequent contention are able to stamp their authority whenever called upon.

South Africa have been brilliant against India in 2022

Against India in particular, South Africa have portrayed that to the tee, often overcoming adverse situations by unfurling the blend of grit and grace they were once synonymous with. That they’ve done it across formats only illustrates how they have identified an excellent core and how it is capable of sustaining them for the foreseeable future.

The crescendo of that arc was perhaps reached on Sunday against the Men In Blue at Cuttack. Prior to the 2nd T20I, Quinton de Kock had been ruled out. Aiden Markram, who tested for COVID-19 a few days back, wasn’t available either, meaning that the Proteas entered the match with two of their biggest white-ball stars not in the mix.

Heinrich Klaasen – a cricketer who embodied everything good and bad about South Africa cricket in the late 2010s, was drafted in, hoping that he could recreate the sort of magic he has become famous for in the domestic circuit. In international cricket, though, those glimpses have been fleeting at best. India have been chastened by it on the odd occasion but apart from that, there hasn’t been a lot to rejoice.

So, when he grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, it didn’t just have short-term implications (the result of the encounter basically), it was also a brazen display of how far South Africa had come in the past few years.

During that period, too, they weren’t averse to shuffling their pack. At times, it was forced and on other occasions, it was just what they felt was right. But irrespective of the circumstances, none of their fringe players would really stand up to the occasion at the first time of asking. There would be gambles on their abilities but the returns would, almost always, feel disproportionate. Not this time. Not with Klaasen playing one of the greatest T20I knocks South Africa has ever seen.

There were incredible performances elsewhere too. Kagiso Rabada, long labelled the torch-bearer of the Proteas’ great fast-bowling legacy, breathed fire throughout. Anrich Nortje bowled with serious pace and Wayne Parnell, returning to the fold after a Kolpak deal, never looked like he had missed a beat. Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi didn’t impact the game as much as they would’ve wanted. But in isolated situations, when Bavuma required them to be at their best, they were.

A couple of days before the 2nd T20I, their batters came to the party. Rassie van der Dussen, who looked anything but an international batter for the early part of his innings, showed immense belief in masterminding a superlative run-chase. David Miller, often lambasted for not being consistent enough, also left a lasting impression – perhaps even telling the Proteas faithful that the good days might finally be round the corner.

Miller’s utilization in recent times is perhaps emblematic of how South Africa have tided over a rough phase in their cricketing history. For much of their troughs, the Gujarat Titans batter walked out to hopeless situations. Now, there is an emphasis to get him involved earlier. And, the results have been there for everyone to see.

So, there is no denying that South Africa have plenty of talent at their disposal again. At the moment, the squad playing T20I cricket in India is pretty darn good. If you add Dewald Brevis to that mix, it becomes a lot more exciting. And, if they can somehow reintegrate du Plessis and Rilee Rossouw, who has been setting the T20 Blast alight, they could be a more daunting prospect than they are currently.

South Africa also seem to be understanding how to optimise their resources better and not think about what has happened in the past. Most importantly, though, they are finding ways to win and are finding ways to keep believing even when conventional logic and wisdom might mandate otherwise.

This is, in many ways, how South African cricket was in the 2000s. They didn’t win any major ICC tournaments but there was hardly a day when they weren’t dubbed the team to beat.

Back then, they had an assortment of grafters, nuggety grinders, stroke-makers, zealous youngsters – a mix they seem to have stumbled upon again, across formats. But above all, they had a core who knew what it meant to don the green – again, a narrative their players have embraced in recent times.

Maybe then, South Africa are getting back to where they want to be. It has taken a lot longer than they might’ve initially envisioned. The struggle, though, might only make the rewards taste a lot sweeter.