Keegan Petersen made his test debut against the West Indies in 2021. The 29-year-old, with 10 tests to his name and a highest score of 82, starred for his country against India at the start of the year in the red-ball game and will be determined to regain his position.
In his first entry, the injured Petersen talks about taking abuse from his dad when it comes to his batting, why the Proteas are in safe hands with interim coach Malibongwe Maketa and whether he feels Sandpaper-gate will have any effect on the current series.
Thursday, 8 December – Hamstring tears and thunder Down Under
After tearing my hamstring while attempting a diving stop on the boundary, I’m making progress in my recovery. It’s five weeks in already and I have got another seven to go!
INDIA SERIES WAS MAKE-OR-BREAK
India was a massive series for me and I was fortunate to have done well in the games I got [Petersen was named man of the series after some eye-catching batting displays], given that India is one of the best teams in the world. I’m chuffed that I was able to score runs and contribute in a test series win against them. It was a make-or-break series for me and if I didn’t do well, I think I would’ve been in danger of getting dropped.
My dad Dirk is my biggest supporter but also abuses me a lot about my batting! I’ve learnt a lot in my career so far and have pieced together those lessons to get to the stage I’m at from a batting perspective. I’m still learning every day and hopefully I can just add onto my game and become a regular in international cricket. In terms of my strategy, I try to capitalise as much as I can on whatever bad bowling that presents itself to me – whether it be early in my innings or later on.
I kind of play on instinct which I’ve done for a number of years now and I don’t think it will change. In terms of 575 runs scored at an average of 31.94, I feel it’s not the best and I would love it to be an average of 40-odd and closer to 800 runs. But I’m not too stressed about the numbers. I’m hopeful my future will have a lot of test cricket in it and I can improve on that record.
TESTS ARE NOTHING NEW TO MALI
Looking ahead to the three-test series against Australia, Dean [Elgar] is an easy guy to get along with and is straightforward in terms of what we want to achieve as a team. I don’t think it’s going to be difficult for Mali [Maketa] to work with him because they have collaborated in the past [most recently in the UK] and Mali has been in and around the test side a few times. He was in the Proteas set-up before so international cricket is nothing new to him. Mali has a lot to offer the team and hopefully he brings it this series.
In terms of the Australian wickets, they seem a lot closer to home in comparison so I think our batters will be ok. We haven’t really put the numbers on the board in the past year or so but we’ve shown a few times that if we click, we do what needs to be done to get over the line. The public is asking for hundreds to be put out and hopefully in this series it can happen.
Everyone is always speaking about it so I think it’s in the back of the batters’ minds that we need to get over that line and put the numbers on the board. To a certain extent, I agree that it’s a mental thing because we’re always reminded of it.
PROTEAS MUST THROW FIRST PUNCH
In terms of our batsmen, I think they are all very capable. Theunis de Bruyn has been there before me and international cricket is nothing new to him either. He has done well – he has scored a hundred in test cricket – and showed that he can so I believe with everything in me he will make a success of it. When it comes to Aiden [Markram] we all know he is a world-class player and hopefully he comes back into the side as confident as we would like him to be. I trust our current batting line-up fully to get the job done…
As far as Australia are concerned, they’ve shown time and again they are a world-class side. The Smiths and Labuschagnes of the world are now scoring runs too so I think we’ve got our work cut out for us. But we are a side that wants to throw the first punch so to speak and set the tone for the series in the opening test match at the Gabba. That would be lovely because it’s going to be a scrappy series. It’s the top two test sides in the world at the moment according to rankings so there is going to be a battle out there.
NEITHER TEAM WILL OFFER AN INCH
It will be the first test meeting between the two sides since the infamous 2018 series but I think it [Sandpaper-gate] has slipped people's minds by now. We don’t speak about it as players and it has never really come up within our team environment. I don’t believe the upcoming series is going to be played in that spirit either and, as the captain, I don’t think Dean will allow it [Sandpaper-gate] to be used as a narrative.
However, when it comes to sledging, as South Africans we won’t stand down to it. The Australians are a difficult bunch on the field but we are a difficult bunch too on our day. Neither team is going to stand down which is going to make the test match battle even more interesting.