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South Africa lost a Test match and Temba Bavuma’s undefeated record as Test skipper came to an end in Durban on Tuesday. It had to happen at some point and to be fair, it was hardly surprising that it happened when it did.
Why? When the Proteas squared up against the top ranked side in the world, they did so not having played a Test for almost a year. To expect Bavuma and his charges to be on top of their game immediately was probably asking too much.
The good news is that the series against Australia involves three-matches. Following the defeat in Durban the action moves to Gqeberha and then Cape Town. There is plenty of opportunity for South Africa to turn things around and still win the series.
Undoubtedly, they need to make some tweaks and changes if this is to happen; Australia will take lots of confidence from the Durban win.
But the Proteas can only worry about the things that they can control – so what do they need to do ahead of the trip to St Georges Park to ensure that they are better equipped to win in the second game of the series.
Get their heads right
Test cricket is very different from T20I and ODI cricket, but all too often, when a team hasn’t played Tests for a while, the lines between the different formats become blurred. In white ball cricket getting bat on ball is critical. If you are not hitting the ball, you are not scoring runs, and if you are not scoring runs you are putting your team under pressure. That is how it works if T20Is where any dot-ball is a gift to the bowling side. That’s simply not the case in Test cricket which is an attritional game. It’s played over five days and occupying the crease and wearing your opponent’s down is a huge element of the game.
In Kingsmead far too many Proteas batsmen were focussed on being aggressive and trying to dominate through run scoring alone. The Ryan Rickelton, who fell for scores of 0 and 2 (driving at a wide one in the first innings and attempting to hook in the second) was a whole lot less circumspect than the Rickelton who bagged a double ton against Pakistan at the start of 2025. Rickelton could have left both the deliveries that removed him, but he chose to play them and he paid the price. Those were deliveries that would have been played early in a T20I, and they are deliveries that could be played once set, in a Test. They are not shots to be played when you are behind in the game and looking to fight your way out of trouble.
And it wasn’t just Rickelton who was injudicious. Reflecting on the situation after the game, skipper Temba Bavuma told the media: “You can never really prepare for Test cricket without playing Test cricket. But a lot of the mistakes we made out there were mental, so I think that’s where we really let ourselves down.”
Also read: T20 ghosts – five IPL cult heroes who have never played international cricket
Balancing the bowling
The Proteas opted to play two spinners in Durban with Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj both getting the nod. Between them the duo managed four wickets in the game and never genuinely looked threatening. They are both good spinners and one of them will play in Gqeberha, but surely just one of them. Kagiso Rabada was missing for the Durban Test, and it looks like he could be fit in time for the second game, but don’t for a minute think that it was Rabada’s absence that hamstrung South Africa. KG was replaced by Anrich Nortje who bowled well and ended with four wickets and, more importantly, with his reputation enhanced. He was quick and menacing and he pummelled the Baggy Green batters.
If Rabada cannot play, then the Proteas need to back Duan Jansen or Corbin Bosch. Wiaan Mulder is excellent and will surely play again, but he is an allrounder rather than an out and out bowling menace, and the Proteas need to bring unrelenting menace to the party in the same way that Australia did with Josh Hazelwood, Mitchell Starc and pat Cummins.
Spend time studying Matt Renshaw
Ahead of the first Test there would have been very few people backing Matt Renshaw to be the man to almost single-handedly demolish the World Test Champions. Across the four innings of the entire Test, there were only three individual scores of more than 50. Two of those scores belonged to Renshaw who hit 190 and 82. If the Proteas can work out how to dismiss him, they will do their cause the world of good.
He has weaknesses, everyone does. Expect the Protea analysts to spend a lot of time in the build up to the next game looking at Renshaw’s technique with a magnifying glass. No other Australian batsman passed 50 in the Test – if the Proteas can find a way to remove Renshaw, they will immediately be in a better place.
Is it time for Marques Ackerman?
Ackerman was widely expected to make his Test debut in Durban, but it didn’t happen. He has waited patiently for a chance to play Test cricket with some excellent knocks playing for South Africa A. Ackerman has shown an ability to concentrate for long periods and to play big innings. He won’t let anyone down. But if he is drafted into the side, whose place does he take? The selectors probably thought long and hard between Ackerman and David Bedingham ahead of the first Test. Like Ackerman, Bedingham has been in excellent domestic form recently. He got the nod, probably because he was already an experienced Test player. Compared with the rest of the batting unit (Aiden Markram excepted), Bedingham did well. He posted scores of 49 and 46, which is a good return, but in some ways a terrible one… Having made starts in both innings he really should have gone on to turn his 40’s into centuries.
That said, it will be hard to leave Bedingham out of the next Test. So, who goes? Rickelton? Tristan Stubbs? If Rickelton is dropped, then who opens the batting? And is it fair to drop Stubbs who scored a century for South Africa on the tour to India (the last series played before Australia).
What is a non-negotiable is that the batters need to pitch up in Port Elizabeth with the type of steel and determination that Aiden Markram brought to Durban. It was too easy for Australia to take South African wickets in the series opener and that must change before play begins at St Georges Park.
Read next: Which batters have been the most successful against India?
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