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It is still important. Getting away from home is important. In the subcontinent, victory is important. The most important thing is to do both of those things as a nation that is now regarded as one of the smaller Test nations, as South Africa recently discovered.
Look at the wider picture and resist the temptation to believe that it’s just Bangladesh, where South Africa has never lost a Test match. The subcontinent has been nearly insurmountable over the past decade. Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, and the West Indies played 35 series in the subcontinent between September 2014 and September 2024, winning only six of them.
England was in charge of three of those series. Conversely, South Africa has lost everything.
In a modest manner, South Africa’s acting captain Aiden Markram referred to the opportunity to finally alter that as “very special,” acknowledging its importance as a symbol of advancement.
During the final stages of a remarkable run that saw them go nine years undefeated on the road, South Africa last dominated Asia in 2014. Markram’s future appeared bright at the moment, since he had just led the under-19 team to the age-group championship in the United Arab Emirates. Even if they were unaware of it at the time, things were already shifting.
Jacques Kallis was the first well-known person to retire in 2013, and ever since, someone else who was seen as crucial to success has stepped down. South Africa has been in transition for nearly a decade, as evidenced by the retirement of former captain and reliable opener Dean Elgar as recently as last December.
As South Africa saw in India in 2015 and 2019, Sri Lanka in 2018, and Pakistan in 2021, the subcontinent turned become an unwinnable arena. The losses were nevertheless painful, even if it’s not as if SENA nations had nothing to complain about because they had been using their home advantage for decades.
The batting of South Africa has suffered the most as a result. All of the current team has had a single Test batter with an average over 40 since May 2018. Although they have only played eight Test matches, David Bedingham, with a century and three fifties, and Tony de Zorzi, with a score of 177, are close.
Given that South Africa’s hitters prioritise effectiveness above run totals, it was not shocking to hear Kagiso Rabada, the attack’s spearhead, downplay his personal significance. Rabada brushed off the fact that the game “moves on” when asked about achieving 300 wickets or returning to the top of the ICC rankings in his post-match interview.
That’s another way that South Africa looks at their empty cabinet of awards and wonders if it will ever be filled. This year has demonstrated to them that they are still capable of doing the things they have set their minds to.
They advanced to the T20 World Cup final in June, and now they have a chance to go to the WTC final. It’s evidence that something is working, that the pool of talent is beginning to reach its full potential, and that perhaps the seemingly impossible is achievable.