Ken Borland

South Africa’s new Test captain will take office on Friday with Cricket South Africa due to make the announcement following a lengthy meeting between the selectors and director of cricket Graeme Smith on Thursday afternoon.

While Smith said back in April that white-ball skipper Quinton de Kock will not be the Test captain as well due to workload concerns – a decision the wicketkeeper/batsman has backed – there have been recent mutterings that, with a new convenor of selectors in place in Victor Mpitsang, that position might be revisited.

But Mpitsang, newly installed as convenor, is unlikely to want to rock the boat too much as he presides over his first Test squad. There was certainly nothing controversial or left-field in the white-ball squads chosen for the curtailed series against England, and it is most likely that a placeholder captain will be put in place on Friday.

That’s because two of the most obvious candidates for the captaincy – batsmen Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma – have not exactly cemented their places in the Test line-up.

Markram averaged just 28.61 in 2019 and needs to win his place in the XI back after injuring himself in the Boxing Day Test a year ago against England. While he has almost certainly done that by scoring three successive centuries for the Titans in four-day cricket, he now needs to regain that consistency at international level.

Bavuma returned to the side for the final Test against England, scoring 27 and 6 as South Africa’s batting disappointed at the Wanderers, and he averaged just 19.84 in 2019. And in all cricket this summer he has scored just 150 runs in six innings, plus he will not be playing in this weekend’s round of four-day matches for the Imperial Lions, having been released to attend to personal matters.

But with Faf du Plessis having retired from Test cricket, Bavuma is almost certain to keep his place in the Test team, although making him captain would appear to be placing unnecessary pressure on him whilst his Test future is still uncertain.

Rassie van der Dussen has shown great leadership qualities ever since he made his Proteas debut in October 2018. But he is still making his way in Test cricket, having only played four matches.

The Proteas do, however, have a ready-made candidate to take over the captaincy from Du Plessis, even if it is just as a stand-in for a couple of seasons. Dean Elgar is established in the Test team, having scored 3888 runs in 63 matches at the solid average of 38.49, considering South Africa is the toughest place to open the batting.

The 33-year-old Elgar is highly respected in the changeroom, especially for his indomitable qualities, and has openly put his name in the hat for the captaincy. Plus he has done the job before – leading the team against England at Lord’s in 2017 and to victory over Pakistan in Johannesburg in January 2019.

With South African cricket in such turmoil at the moment and the Proteas languishing in a woeful eighth place in the ICC World Test Championship, now is the time for stability and not gambling.

The first ODI between South Africa and England scheduled to be played at Newlands from 1pm on Friday has been postponed due to a positive Covid-19 test and will now be held at Boland Park’s scenic surrounds on Sunday.

Cricket South Africa confirmed on Friday, only an hour before the match was scheduled to start, that a member of the Proteas team had tested positive for Covid-19 in the final round of testing which was done on Thursday. While that player obviously goes straight into isolation, everyone else who has been in close contact with him now also has to quarantine or be re-tested.

The bottom line is that the entire series, which was meant to end on Wednesday, is now in doubt because South Africa only have a squad of 18 players in the bubble. The potential loss of revenue from the three ODIs being cancelled is something the professional game in this country can ill afford.

According to the CSA statement, England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison has agreed to the first ODI being postponed rather than cancelled. Sunday’s second game in Paarl will now become the opening 50-ovr fixture, with the Newlands match now being played on Monday and Cape Town also hosting the third match on Wednesday.

Sunday’s fixture is a day game while the last two matches are day/nighters.

Both teams have been tenants of the luxury Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town, in a strictly-controlled bio-bubble, but the Proteas had two players – believed to be David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo – test positive for Covid before the T20 series between November 27 and December 1.

Lock Jason Jenkins has played just the one Test for the Springboks, back in 2018, but now that he has returned to the Bulls on loan from Toyota Verblitz, the beefy 24-year-old has the chance to establish himself in the national squad for the rest of the year, with the legendary Victor Matfield seeing him as a definite option for the Green and Gold.

Jenkins has played for Verblitz since 2017, but represented the Bulls in Super Rugby as recently as last year. But the Pretoria-born St Alban’s College product is now entirely a Verblitz player, with Jake White’s former club agreeing to loan him to Loftus Versfeld until the end of October.

Talks are ongoing though to have Jenkins for longer and the Bulls are hopeful they can extend the loan. Being based in South Africa will also improve Jenkins’ chances of adding to his solitary Springbok appearance against Wales in Washington, especially with RG Snyman, Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth all having suffered injuries recently in Europe. That could be just the carrot needed to lure him into a longer stay, because Japan’s Covid-19 travel restrictions are onerous.

Matfield, the most-capped Springbok ever, believes Jenkins can certainly provide able back-up in the number four jersey.

“Jason is a number four lock in the same mould as Bakkies Botha or an Eben Etzebeth, he plays in the same style as them. He’s a big, strong ball-carrier and very good in the lineouts too. I’ve seen him call the lineouts before as well and he did it well. But to me he’s more of an enforcer, I don’t see him playing at number five for the Springboks.

“With Lood de Jager and RG Snyman possibly out of contention for the Springboks, Franco Mostert will probably run the lineout. But as a back-up, Jason can definitely fill in for Eben Etzebeth at number four,” Matfield told The Citizen on Monday.

Matfield also believes the 122kg Jenkins will make the Bulls set-piece even stronger. White has a group of promising number five locks in his camp, but big bruisers with experience to fill the number four jersey are a bit thin on the ground. The other second-rowers in the Bulls squad are Ewan Coetzee, Jean Droste, Andries Ferreira, Sintu Manjezi, Walt Steenkamp, Wian Vosloo and Ruan Nortje.

“Jason is a great signing for the Bulls because last year their front row was really strong, but they perhaps needed that bit of extra bulk in the second row. They have one or two number five locks but they missed having an enforcer like Jenkins,” Matfield said.

Kagiso Rabada, the Proteas’ top strike bowler, admitted on Monday that the previous season was a disappointment, backing up the statistics which show that it was the 25-year-old’s poorest since he began playing Test cricket for South Africa.

The former No.1 bowler in the world played six Tests in the 2019/20 season and took 21 wickets at an average of 32.85, the first time since making his debut in 2015/16 that his average has dipped into the ‘mediocre’ thirties. His previously least successful season was 2017 in England when he took 16 wickets in three Tests at 28.43. His career figures of 197 wickets in 43 Tests at an average of just 22.95 are a truer reflection of the immense talent he possesses.

To make matters worse, Rabada missed the crucial fourth Test against England at the Wanderers, when the Proteas had a chance of levelling the series, having been suspended for once again provocatively celebrating in the dismissed batsman’s face. The Wanderers has been a happy hunting ground for the Central Gauteng Lions star, with 24 wickets in five Tests there, at an average of just 20.54.

Rabada did not play in an ODI over the summer, but his performance in the World Cup last year was a let-down as he took just 11 wickets in nine matches, at an average of 36.09 and an economy rate of 5.08.

“This Covid-19 has affected people from multiple points of view and there are a lot of economic challenges. But I’ve been glad to get the rest, just not in the way it came, because the last five years have gone really quickly and there’s been a huge volume of cricket. So I’ve really, really enjoyed the break, it’s allowed me to think about what I really want, which makes it easier to set goals.

“The past season was disappointing, my stats were okay but I felt really rusty and a bit out of place. But it’s never supposed to be easy at international level and next season I will just take it day-by-day and try and achieve a new set of goals. Whatever I can contribute to the team winning would be great. That means you enjoy your cricket more and I am 150% committed to South African cricket,” Rabada said on Monday.

Rabada seemed less concerned with his overexuberant celebrations that have landed him in trouble with match referees and have certainly distracted from the focus of the Proteas at key times.

“It’s just passion. I’ve identified the things I need to work on and I will address those with the people closest to me and those people who I feel should help me. People are always going to criticise you in some way and it’s important not to take that to heart. You will always have critics no matter what you do and what others say should not affect you.

“It’s up to you what you want to reflect on and it’s got nothing to do with anyone else,” Rabada, who has been helping out the World Health Organisation with his Viral Wellness initiative along with Cameron Scott and Kingdom Kome, said.