If the Proteas make the World Test Championship (WTC) final next year June at Lord’s, it will be a remarkable achievement for South African cricket.
The WTC final will be contested by the top two teams on the table, and considering South Africa play far lest Test cricket than the big three nations - England, India and Australia - it would make their possible progression to the trophy match all the more impressive.
In the current two-year cycle which began in 2023, South Africa have played seven Tests to date. Meanwhile, India have played 13, Australia have played 12 and England have played a whopping 19 matches.
Fortunately, the table is ranked on percentage of points won per match which allows teams like South Africa to remain competitive.
Work cut out for Proteas
Competitive to an extent though, as the big gaps between Test matches makes it more difficult for teams like the Proteas to develop consistency both in performance and results.
India currently top the WTC table with 62.82 percentage points, Australia are second with 62.5 and Sri Lanka are third with 55.56. South Africa hold fifth place with 47.62.
Kyle Verreynne who was the hero of South Africa’s first Test victory over hosts Bangladesh in Mirpur last week, has lamented the lack of cricket his team play in the longest format.
“I think I’ve spoken about it before, I think it has a massive impact on the team especially when it comes to individual performances in terms of getting momentum. Fortunately now we’ve got quite a few Tests coming up over the home summer, so that’ll be a lot better,” Verreynne told CricBlog in an exclusive interview.
“It’s difficult, we had our last Test series… I think it ended in August in the West Indies, and I felt like personally you are getting into a bit of form, and then you’ve got to wait another two months to get your next game, so that becomes quite difficult. For the early part of my career, that’s been the most challenging.
“Everytime you feel like you’re finding your feet and feel like you’re getting into a rhythm, you need to wait another 2-3 months for the Tests… and then it’s two Test matches and then you’ve got to wait another 2-3 months.
“I say it definitely has an impact on consistency and finding your feet, and I think that’s probably why it takes maybe a little bit longer for guys to find their feet at this level now because there’s not that much cricket, so hopefully we’ll see more consistency from the guys going forward.”