Cape Town – As the Proteas departed SuperSport Park late on Thursday evening after a few celebratory drinks for wiping away the West Indies in the first Test, one of their members would have been slightly less jovial than others.
Keegan Petersen would almost certainly have pondered over the week ahead, returning to the ground of one of his most crucial Test innings, and where in fact he first showed his value as a quality Test batter after an indifferent start.
But such is his current circumstances that this upcoming Test at the Wanderers, startingon Wednesday, is equally crucial for Petersen. The future route of his entire Test career may seem to be on the line this coming week at the Bullring.
Petersen’s plight has as much to do with rotten luck as it has with poor form. Since his Player of the Series performance against India, where he followed up his Wanderers half-century with two more at Newlands, the 29-year-old has only managed one more score in excess of 50 in 11 innings.
But what the numbers don’t show is that Petersen missed the New Zealand tour through Covid-19 last year before also being ruled out of the Australian series with a hamstring injury, and actually looked the most accomplished of all the batters on the tour of England in between.
It has therefore been hard for Petersen to form any sort of rhythm to his Test career, and even more so due to the fact he was walking to the crease in the unfamiliar No 3 position.
It was an unforgiving baptism to Test cricket, especially due to South Africa’s openers not being able to offer up any form of resistance against the new ball.
New Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad has immediately tried to rectify this situation by handing Western Province top-order batter Tony de Zorzi a Test debut at No 3, while moving Petersen to the middle at No 5 to give him the best possible chance of success.
Finding himself now the recipient of a paddle, it is Petersen that has to row his boat to safety.
He has the footwork and strokeplay, the experience and the method, he can play off front foot and back, against pace and spin. But returns of 14 and seven at Centurion is not what’s going to keep him in the Test side for any length of time.
It does seem rather churlish to isolate a lone batter in the form of Petersen when the perennial problems across the Proteas batting unit reared its ugly head again at SuperSport Park.
But with Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar seemingly now installed at the opening pair after their century stand in the first innings, De Zorzi to be given a run at first drop for the foreseeable future and Temba Bavuma is the captain of the Test side, it does leave Petersen the most vulnerable.
Even more so due to reserve batter Ryan Rickleton banging the door down domestically. The Lions left-hander has fully recovered from the ankle injury that kept him out of the Australian tour to strike three centuries in three first-class matches and is now pushing hard for inclusion in the Proteas Test starting XI.
While acknowledging it is not his duty to select the final XI, Bavuma has plenty of confidence in Petersen to get the job done against the Windies in the second Test. Equally, he had some sage words of advice for young Rickelton.
“Keegan is obviously a guy that has been part of the team. He has been out not because of performances, but due to injury. He is fit now, and we suppose have an unwritten policy that sees the incumbent guy come back in again,” Bavuma said.
“Keegan has been an important player for us. When he came into the team, he batted out of position, batting at No 3. Number 5 has really always been his position, and I think you want to give a guy an opportunity in a position that he prefers.
“Obviously, Ryan is banging in the runs. But sometimes that does happen, that you don’t get an opportunity when you’re doing well, and you get an opportunity when you are not doing well.
“Looking at Ryan, taking in all our experiences as Test players, he needs to keep his head down, as he is doing, keep putting in the work, and when that opportunity comes make sure that he is mentally ready for it.”
