As the Proteas strive to eradicate recent batting woes, News 24 Sport chief writer Rob Houwing suggests a frontline six, in order, for the first West Indies Test.
Remember the days - not absurdly long ago - when you almost automatically knew which berths in South Africa's frontline Test batting line-up would be occupied by whom?
When Graeme Smith led the Proteas to the ICC Test mace for top-ranked side in a period in the early to mid-2010s, it coincided largely with an era where the captain was a staple opener, Hashim Amla the No 3, Jacques Kallis at four, and AB de Villiers just behind him.
Stability? Oh, and then some… the career statistics of the players involved, all deserving of legend status in the country's annals, said everything you needed to know.
Fast forward to the present and batting, sadly, has become the Achilles' heel of a South African multi-day side that has slipped quite profoundly from past glories.
There is no single spot in the top six or seven right now that can be described as the firmly nailed-down preserve of any individual… a most harrowing and rare situation for the country.
Following successive away series defeats to England and Australia, the Proteas seek to stabilise their fortunes through a two-Test challenge at home to lower-ranked West Indies, beginning at SuperSport Park on Tuesday.
Special interest surrounds the "under new management" angle, of course: Shukri Conrad as head coach, with a shaken-up support team, and Temba Bavuma now as on-field leader.
What we know from Conrad's early soundbites is that he intends stiffening the batting as much as possible - including through ideally deepening it - and encouraging an attacking mindset.
It is also almost a fait accompli, based on his words, that a back-in-favour Aiden Markram is earmarked for a return, not only to the XI, but as deposed skipper Dean Elgar's opening partner again.
That is an alliance, initially a productive one, last fielded together in that capacity against India at Newlands just over a year ago before Markram's badly thinning returns led to temporary stints for him at both Nos 3 and 4 (without any tangible upturn).
But the booming right-hander generally revels in Highveld conditions and if he can get off to rollicking starts, it will simultaneously ease the pressure in this series on the more dogged Elgar, who is also well overdue for major scores.
Just how much recognised batting does Conrad provisionally plan to employ at Centurion?
While he named seven out-and-out stroke-players in his first squad, he may well intend settling for use of six of them… in which case, new face Tony de Zorzi seems the likeliest omission at this point, given that he is primarily an opening bat and earliest plans seem already laid there.
Skipper at crease from eary on
The coach's 15-strong party significantly included three all-rounders of varying guises, so No 7 could well go to a bridging Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy or Marco Jansen (though the wunderkind last-named player's development at the crease is probably best suited at this stage to one rung lower, at eight).
On the assumption Conrad goes for six frontliners in stroke-play who, then, should the "three to six" be?
Before injury deprived him of the Aussie tour, 10-cap Keegan Petersen was the go-to figure at important first drop: all but one of his 18 Test innings so far have been from there.
He can probably be considered favourite to slot back into that position, not least because he excelled in home conditions in the role last summer against India (especially) and then Bangladesh.
That said, his stocks slipped on the England tour in mid-2022, where he couldn't seem to convert fair enough starts into big 'uns. A personal inclination would be, especially as Petersen remains rusty and domestically runs-shy since his recovery, to move captain Bavuma into the No 3 berth for a first-time stab there.
It is the one position in the order (stretching as deep as seven for him so far) that the scrapping right-hander hasn't yet sampled.
Traditionally, Bavuma has enjoyed getting stuck in when the ball is still hard and relatively shiny - a phenomenon already commonplace for him in white-ball cricket - and he has both the temperament and tightness of technique to do justice to No 3.
It would also not be the worst development to have the skipper involved in the game at the crease from pretty early on.
The problem with No 4, where he operated throughout the series Down Under (SA's top scorer across their three rather wretched Tests with 185 at 37.00), is the pressure to be a genuinely heavy scorer there… and it is common knowledge Bavuma has one Test century from 93 Test innings, despite his increasing, general reliability.
Meat in the sandwich
I remember remarking to Bavuma, several years ago, that his style was not dissimilar to that of a Test opener, and he wasn't too inclined to disagree - anywhere in the top three for him would hardly be an outlandish thought?
On the subject of heavy scoring, that brings me to No 4… and the potential appeal brought by Ryan Rickelton, controversially omitted from the Aussie pilgrimage though already holder of a toe-in-water three Test caps.
While we don't yet have a clear indication of whether he can carry it across to the highest level, the 26-year-old left-hander from Johannesburg has had a major pattern this season of delivering beefy, three-figure innings.
There have been three tons off his blade from only five innings to this point in the CSA 4-Day Series, and two further ones in seven in the One-Day Challenge for the Lions. Should he be the southpaw "meat in a sandwich", maybe, between right-handers Bavuma (No 3) and Petersen at No 5 in the Test line-up against the Caribbean side?
Considering his Quinton de Kock-like characteristics as a lower middle-order clean striker and fast scorer in longform cricket, already-designated wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen seems a fine fit at six (or perhaps even No7, where De Kock used to especially shine, if Conrad somehow squeezes De Zorzi into his batting plans as well).
It was madness to expect Klaasen to bat at sacrifice of first wicket in the Sydney Test, where he got his only outing of the Australian series in the weather-influenced dead-rubber draw: it is just not his natural terrain, though he made a fist of it with 35 in the brief SA second innings.
My recommended SA top six (in order) from the available squad, for the SuperSport Park Test: Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma, Ryan Rickelton, Keegan Petersen, Heinrich Klaasen.
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter:@RobHouwing
