When asked how the team will approach the fourth and final T20 against India on Friday, given that they can no longer win the series (and haven’t won a bilateral series in two years), Klaasen said they simply wish they had more games.
Of course, the opposite could also happen and South Africa could lose 3-1, making any potential fifth match pointless, but Klaasen was under no pressure on the matter. Instead, he was unhappy with how little South Africa plays in all formats. “Our Test team is playing two-Test series, which is ridiculous in my opinion. It’s disappointing and doesn’t sit well with the players, because we want to play more cricket against these guys and also against other countries, but we always find a way. way to play two or three games, and it’s annoying.
For comparison, since August last year, India has played three five-match T20I series (against the West Indies, Australia and Zimbabwe), but has also played only three-match ODI series since the start of 2019. Their Test schedule is much busier than South Africa’s with five Test series against Australia and England in the next eight months. The Australian Tests begin in a week and that team is already preparing in Perth, while the T20I team competes in South Africa. “You see India are playing this Friday and next Friday, which is incredible, on two different sides of the world,” Klaasen said.
India is not the only country to have split squads in operation. Recently, England’s Test team finished a series in Pakistan while their white-ball team was in the West Indies, which speaks as much to their demand as an opposition as it does to their depth. South Africa could do something similar because they have some players who are only red or white ball, like Klaasen, but it remains to be seen if they could field full competitive teams in two formats at the same time. A case in point is what happened earlier this year when most of South Africa’s first-choice Test players were unavailable for a tour to New Zealand because they were contractually obliged to play in SA20. South Africa lost 2-0, the first time they had lost a Test series to New Zealand. Still, they remain in the hunt for the World Test Championship final and can get there if they win all four Tests at home this summer.
Planning for them is taking place now, with Kagiso Rabada resting from India’s T20Is and Lungi Ngidi on a conditioning break. But Aiden Markram has remained the team’s captain and will not get any domestic red-ball game time before those Tests. Markram is on a white-ball scoring rut and hasn’t crossed 30 in his last 12 T20I innings. He was dismissed for 29 at Centurion, after hitting six successive sixes off Varun Chakravarthy and then dragging him towards deep midfield. Markram’s reaction was to scream and hit his bat, something Klaasen understood very well.
“If I put your career, like any job anyone does, on the table, and say, ‘You make one mistake, and that’s the end of it,’ you’re going to be frustrated if you make a mistake. It’s not like your career is in jeopardy. By the way, everything is at stake,” he said. “I’m just saying that people need to understand that that’s what we go through. It’s in the heat of the moment. There are a billion people who are going to be in your head if you fail. There’s a lot of frustration and he was looking fantastic in the form when he hit the ball tonight. “It’s good to see he’s finding some rhythm in his game and I hope he keeps going.”
He hopes that for himself too. Since leaving the MLC in July due to a family emergency, Klaasen has batted in eight T20s at domestic and international level combined, scoring a fifty. “It’s been a tough run but I’ve also had a bit of a break so it’s not that easy, especially in this format, to just go in and play aggressive cricket,” he said. “For the style I play, I just have to find some form. I know and understand my game at the moment, which is very good, and I’m in a fortunate position to understand my game and know where I need to adjust.” . “Also, I don’t look into that too much because, like I said, it’s been a long year, a tough year, and it was still a fantastic year for me.”
So far in 2024, Klaasen has played 55 T20 matches (domestic and international) across four tournaments, the T20 World Cup and the ongoing bilateral series. He has a batting strike rate of 164.32, the highest for any calendar year.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket
