Ashwell Prince

Ashwell Prince found a place in the national team for the first time thanks to the then prevalent quota system in South Africa. With pointed elbows and a crouched stature, it has always seemed that Prince faced every delivery with a vigorous sense of servitude.

After first featuring for South Africa in 2002 and getting a run of caps under him, Ashwell Prince’s performances declined to force a two-year sabbatical into domestic cricket. In his brief stint with the national side, Prince couldn’t convert strong starts into long innings.
Upon his return in 2004 against New Zealand, the left-hander had two important cameos in as many ODIs, being the stand out batsman in low scoring affairs that eventually ended in defeats. He was recalled to the Test fold immediately to face Zimbabwe, and notched his first ton on his return outing. Further centuries on tour to West Indies and Australia cemented his place in the Proteas’ Test middle order. In ODIs, he continued not to capitalize on starts and was eventually dropped after a poor 2007 World Cup.

In the longer variant he continued to stack up tons against various nations on home and away surfaces and became one of South Africa’s dependable heads. Two of those centuries, one against West Indies in 2008 and the second while facing England the succeeding year helped South Africa to resounding innings defeats in their progress to restoring their lost formidability in International cricket. Deployed as an opener at times, a 150 in one such instance against Australia in 2009 helped his team win the third Test and avoid a series whitewash.