World champions South Africa had a difficult schedule in the 2025-2027 World Test Championship, but they have started off in style.
South Africa’s secret recipe
At stumps on day two at the Eden Gardens, South Africa were 61 runs ahead in the second innings with seven wickets in hand. Yet, Simon Harmer was optimistic at the press conference after the day’s play: “Cricket’s a funny game, you know. We could be sitting here tomorrow night, (with a) completely different story. South Africa managed to get to 150 and bowl India out for 80.”
The Indian media did not share these beliefs, but South Africa exceeded Harmer’s prediction by scoring 153. Then he assumed charge, following the 4-31 in the first innings with 4-21. India did go past 80, but only by 13 runs.
South Africa are now unbeaten in three consecutive series in Asia. England last completed this hat-trick in 1980 (and that included a one-off Test in Bombay). Australia, in 2006. New Zealand, in 2014, albeit with three drawn series. The West Indies, in 1994. It is not an easy feat.
What makes South Africa’s feat more astonishing is that it came on the back of four consecutive series defeats in the same continent. Across these tours, South Africa had lost 10 Tests, were saved by rain in one, and did not win even one. The turnaround has been incredible.
Just as remarkable is the sheer number of cricketers that have stood up. Harmer was the star with the ball in Kolkata, but that came after captain Temba Bavuma’s masterclass of defensive batting gave them a semblance of a chance and Marco Jansen’s five inexpensive wickets.
Bavuma had not been there when South Africa won in Rawalpindi last month to level the series. Harmer had eight wickets in that Test, one fewer than Keshav Maharaj’s nine. Tristan Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi got runs. Senuran Muthusamy, bowling hero of the Test before that, got 89 not out, while Kagiso Rabada smashed 71. Neither of the last two played in Kolkata.
Across these two wins, South Africa found eight different heroes. Last year, they had become the first “SENA” team since 2009/10 to win a Test series in Bangladesh. De Zorzi and Stubbs had got hundreds, but so had Wiaan Mulder and Kyle Verreynne. Rabada and Maharaj had shared 27 wickets.
In between, at the WTC final, the greatest moment in South Africa’s cricket history, Rabada ruled the show, but Lungi Ngidi struck vital blows in the third innings. Then, Aiden Markram and Bavuma masterminded a chase. And these are just the heroes away from home.
You perhaps get the point. A less-spoken point about South Africa’s recent success story has been the number of different heroes who have stood up. Since the start of the 2023-2025 edition, South Africa have had 16 Test hundreds in the World Test Championship: these have come from nine different batters. Similarly, their 16 five-wicket hauls have been shared by eight bowlers.
As is evident, no team has matched South Africa’s frequency of finding different stars in either batting or bowling. They have lived up to the old adage of a team being as strong as its weakest link.
Success drowns all noise
South Africa’s historic triumph in WTC 2023-2025 should have earned them universal praise but it did not. Fans and pundits alike pointed out their supposedly “easy” route to the final. Michael Vaughan claimed that they had made it to the final “on the back of beating pretty much nobody”. Kerry O’Keeffe compared it to “making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed on the way.”
These remarks ignored the fact that by sending a second-string side to New Zealand, South Africa had as good as played out their 12-Test cycle with a two-Test handicap. The two quasi-deliberate defeats had evened the advantage.
South Africa had a difficult itinerary in 2025-2027. Three Tests into their six-Test away leg – all of which is in Asia – they have won two and lost one. They sit at second place in the points table, jointly with Sri Lanka and behind only Australia. Unlike South Africa, however, Sri Lanka and Australia have played only Bangladesh and the West Indies, the two teams at the bottom of the points table.
The knives that had been ready before South Africa’s title defence had commenced are unlikely to surface anytime soon. South Africa’s many heroes have taken care of that.
