World champs South Africa seek home coronation

Having already won the WTC before beating India in India, South Africa now face Australia and England at home in the next three months

The hardest part is already behind them. South Africa know what it takes to become world champions. They know what it feels like to win a Test series in India too—and not merely survive it. Last year, they walked into one of cricket’s most unforgiving arenas and walked out 2-0 winners, with Kolkata and Guwahati providing the sort of performances that can alter a team's sense of itself. Now they get to come home.

South Africa's captain Temba Bavuma plays a shot. (AP)

Australia are first, England follow in December. Two of the Big 3 in Test cricket are set to arrive in South Africa in successive tours, just as the country's grounds reopen after their upgrades ahead of the 2027 World Cup, at a time of the year that generally doesn’t witness much cricket. It’s an unusually good moment to ask the question that has followed South Africa since they won the World Test Championship last year: just how good are they?

The WTC title itself came with an asterisk in some quarters. South frica had played fewer Tests than their rivals, and their route to he final had left some wondering whether they had done enough to deserve the crown. But one inconvenient fact remained for the doubters: South Africa beat Australia fair and square in the final at Lord's.

Their victory in India made the argument stronger. For a team that had spent years trying to find its identity after the great South African sides of the past had faded, something appeared to click. They began to play with the assurance of a side that expected to win rather than hoped to. If the WTC final was the breakthrough, winning in India was the confirmation that something had changed in this side.

But South Africa would prefer to test that against Australia in a rivalry that has been keenly contested in the past 20 years—splitting the honours 4-4 in nine series, with the 2011-12 tour in South Africa drawn. South Africa have won three series in Australia and one at home; Australia have won two in each country. These aren’t numbers of a one-sided rivalry. And South Africa captain Temba Bavuma is not pretending otherwise.

“We give them a lot of respect but we also take confidence in that we've been able to get the better of them,” he was quoted as saying by Cricinfo. “The respect lies in the fact that they've been very dominant over the years.” There is no bravado here.

It is respect without reverence—an important distinction for a team that has spent enough time measuring itself against cricket's traditional powers. The contest, Bavuma suggests, will be decided in the places where Test matches have always been decided: pressure, confrontation and players willing to seize the moments that change a game.

“Their batting attack, our bowling attack, their bowling attack versus what our batting attack can do,” he said. “There's opportunities for guys to take each other on and really make the play for the team.”

If the India series was the hardest part of the transformation, these two home tours could be the most important part of South Africa’s coronation. England will bring a completely different problem. Their Test cricket was built around aggression and the willingness to turn matches into contests of nerve but under Stephen Fleming and Joe Root, that is expected to change.

Australia will bring something more familiar though—control, hostility and the expectation that they should be the side dictating terms. Psychologically, this series could be the most demanding.

“When you play against Australia, you don't just play against those individuals, you play against what it means to be Australian,” said Bavuma.

It justifies Bavuma’s prudence ahead of the opening Test in Durban, beginning Friday. “I wouldn't want to put too much pressure on myself to say or define who I am as a cricketer,” he said. “I've had over ten years of international cricket, and you'd hate to think that one moment will dictate everything about it.”

It’s also an appropriate philosophy for a team trying to escape the bane of isolated highs. The WTC final was one moment. Winning in India was another. The challenge now is to make them part of a trend. This is South Africa’s chance to achieve something more permanent, a slew of performances that can catapult them into the league of some of the finest Test teams ever. Bavuma calls it “a big season”.

Perhaps that understates it.