Why Marco Jansen stands above the rest

From an IPL punt to the summit of Test cricket, the South African fast bowler’s story has been shaped, in no small measure, by India

There are far more conventional ways to announce yourself as the best Test bowler in the world. But Marco Jansen did it by rescuing South Africa from 110 for six, hitting an imposing 85 from 100 balls, before helping dismantle Australia with 5/33 in Gqeberha. By the time the latest ICC rankings arrived, Jansen had displaced Mitchell Starc at the top of the Test bowling table. At 26, he had reached a summit that once seemed a distant prospect for a cricketer whose most obvious attribute was his extraordinary height.

In the ongoing home Test series against Australia, Marco Jansen has taken his game to the next level. (AFP)

Extraordinary could be an understatement though. At 6ft 9in—add to this the length of an entire arm and a fair spring to that popping crease jump—Jansen’s towering presence alone has disconcerted batters, prompting them to adjust their eyeline and raise their batting centre of gravity. Basically, it can play havoc with your system. But height is an advantage, not a career plan. What has made Jansen’s rise remarkable is the manner in which he has converted that advantage into a repeatable craft, while developing into a batter—which he initially wanted to be—capable of changing a Test match.

India, curiously, has been present at several of those defining moments. Jansen’s professional journey gathered momentum when Mumbai Indians spotted him and brought him into their IPL squad in 2021. His introduction to the tournament came against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, where Glenn Maxwell became his first IPL wicket. “He can bowl in any situation,” Rohit Sharma had said then. It was an early endorsement of a quality that would become central to Jansen’s international career. Height can produce spectacular bounce, but it doesn’t automatically deliver control, stamina or tactical intelligence. Those had to be developed, ball by ball, across the unforgiving length of a Test match.

He wasn’t yet the finished article. But South Africa had found a bowler whose release point, steep bounce and left-arm angle offered a different dimension to their attack. That opportunity came soon enough, when Jansen made his Test debut against India at Centurion, on Boxing Day in 2021. India arrived as an accomplished touring side, equipped with a fast-bowling attack that could compete on unfamiliar surfaces and a batting line-up accustomed to absorbing pressure.

By then, Jansen was already an outlier because of his height. But when you factor in the ease with which he can resort to a yorker, or bluffing batters with bouncers that aren’t commensurate with his height and angles, Jansen becomes much more complicated to decipher. Central to this armoury though is the ability to nag away at the length spot, and sometimes, just short of it, throwing batters into the dilemma of whether to go forward or hang back.

His progress wasn’t linear, nor did it depend on a single breakthrough. The debut tour passed off well with Jansen settling down with 19 wickets in three Tests. Soon enough, a five-wicket haul at the Oval, though that series would be remembered for Kagiso Rabada’s 14-wicket haul.

There were spells of indifferent control and the constant physical demands of fast bowling. Yet Jansen continued to add to his game. His batting, once a secondary attraction, began to look like a serious asset rather than a bonus.

The Indian connection did an encore last November, when South Africa won a two-Test series in India 2-0. It was their first series victory in the country since 2000, a result that overturned decades of assumptions about India's home advantage. Jansen’s tour haul? 12 wickets in two Tests at an average of just over 10 runs. Not to forget, a heroic 93 at Guwahati coming at No 9 to resuscitate South Africa from 334/7 to 489 in the first innings.

The figures told only part of the story. Jansen's height made him particularly difficult to negotiate when the surface offered variable bounce, but he wasn’t merely waiting for conditions to do the work. India, in defeat, had helped expose the qualities that now define Jansen—stamina, tactical intelligence and the capacity to influence a match in more than one discipline.

There is a tendency to describe Jansen using physical superlatives. His height, long levers and steep bounce are obvious, television-friendly explanations for his success. They are also incomplete. Tall fast bowlers can struggle with consistency, particularly when their natural release point makes length difficult to control. Jansen's achievement has been to turn an unusual physique into a sustainable method, rather than a collection of spectacular deliveries. His batting adds another layer. Jansen is no longer simply a bowler who can bat. He is becoming the sort of player around whom a side can construct its balance. For South Africa, that versatility is precious.

Work remains to be done. Rankings are a snapshot, not a permanent verdict, and the best fast bowlers are judged over years, across continents and through periods when their bodies refuse to cooperate. But Jansen’s ascent already tells a compelling story. First caught on the radar of an IPL franchise; a Test debut against India offering an early examination; followed by a historic victory in India that revealed his growing influence; and now Australia providing the script for a player increasingly capable of deciding matches on his own. For a cricketer whose career has risen in great strides, the next challenge is to make the summit feel like home.