Janneman Malan: A long term opening partner for Quinton De Kock in making

The South African team was struggling to find an opening partner for Quinton de Kock for a long time. Ever since Hashim Amla retired, the team has been searching for his able replacement. However, that search now looks complete with a player like Janneman Malan performing consistently at the top of the order.

Trial and error

In the last three years, the Proteas team have used a total of six openers in ODIs including Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla and Janneman Malan. The other three players are Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram. However, all these three players failed to impress with the bat. Hendricks and Markram were given a long rope but could manage an average of only 23 and 34 respectively in the tenure.

Malan – a consistent performer

However, Janneman Malan has been among the headlines ever since his debut in the fifty-over format. Though he got out for a duck in his first innings, Malan played a superb knock of 129 runs in the second match. His innings helped South Africa chase the target of 272 runs quite easily. He remained not out till the end and hit 7 fours and 4 sixes in the knock.

In his fourth ODI innings, Malan smashed 70 runs against Pakistan in 81 balls including 7 fours. However, his team lost this match by 28 runs. In the recently completed ODI series against Ireland, the opener smashed 84 runs in the second match including 7 fours and 4 fours.

Janneman Malan smashed 177* from 169 balls while Quinton de Kock scored 120 from just 91 deliveries as South Africa ended their innings on 346/4 against Ireland in the third ODI.#IREvSA pic.twitter.com/BLwniS1ZD7

— SA Cricket Magazine (@SACricketmag) July 16, 2021

In the third and decider ODI, Malan played a magnificent knock of 177 runs off 169 balls. He hit 16 fours and 6 sixes in his match-winning knock. Till now, Malan has hit 483 runs in 6 ODI innings at an average of 120.75. No player has ever scored more runs than him in the first six innings of his fifty-over career.

With the next ODI World Cup scheduled in India in 2023, Janneman Malan looks to be an obvious choice for the opening slot along with Quinton de Kock. South Africa have struggled in the past few years to find an opening pair, and those issues should be sorted now.