At the time of writing, Lhuan-dre Pretorius averages 72.7 from seven first-class innings, with three centuries and one half-century. He scored one on debut last December, his highest score so far, of 120. As if that wasn't enough, he followed it up with another in his next innings in March – becoming just the third South African to start their first-class career with two centuries.

He averages 44.4 in List A cricket, striking at a shade under 111 with two hundreds – one of them the fastest in Titans history, off 61 balls. That was an innings that also saw him whack Proteas spinner Senuran Muthusamy for five sixes in an over.

In T20 cricket, Pretorius averages 27.6, not as impressive as the other formats, but he strikes at a more than respectable 147.2, hitting a boundary every 4.3 balls. All this after an underwhelming first season of the CSA T20 Challenge, immediately after the U19 World Cup last year. In this year's SA20, he bludgeoned 97 on debut, and finished as the league's top run-scorer.

It was over the weekend just gone, that Pretorius scored his third first-class century. Coming in at 105-3 with Titans still trailing by 185 after following on, his 114 before he was trapped lbw by Bjorn Fortuin ensured his side got past Lions' first-innings score, and secured a draw to share the domestic title.

At 19, Lhuan-dre Pretorius is unlike anyone we have seen before

In the first innings of this match, Pretorius had come in at 82-5. Titans managed only 43 more runs after his arrival. He scored 30 of them, unbeaten, and his frustration at the non-striker's end with each batter that came and went, was a sight to behold. When the last wicket fell, he put a hand on his head and marched off the pitch without so much as waiting for his partner: you could virtually see the steam coming out of his ears.

It almost seemed to be the frustration of someone who couldn't understand why everyone else didn't just do what he did. But there has almost never been anyone like Pretorius.

The sport of football has a sub-culture dedicated to age-group competition, and the hunt for the next big star is borderline obsessive – just ask anyone who commits to a career mode game of FIFA or Football Manager. Cricket (at least men's cricket) is not quite the same. There is, naturally, excitement when young players do well at levels that should be above them, but it is rather more measured, and tempered.

Read more: Why Lhuan-dre Pretorius' wrists make him T20 batting's newest unicorn

Pretorius turned 19 at the end of March, but his credentials across all three formats are already staggering. Granted, there is still time for him to go through all the ups and downs of any cricketing career, but it is extremely rare for a player so young to demonstrate such an ease to switch between the demands of each format.

Three of the best batting talents in recent years have come from India, in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw. All three showcased exceptional ability at a young age in first-class and List A cricket, but needed time to find their feet in the T20 format. Gill and Jaiswal have begun to make good on their potential at senior level, whereas Shaw continues to work away in domestic cricket with chances of an international return looking bleak.

South Africa's great batting hope pre-Pretorius was Dewald Brevis, whose breakout 2022 U19 World Cup campaign rubber-stamped his status as one to watch going forward in this decade. He received an IPL deal aged 19, and ended up being shoehorned into the role of a white-ball specialist. It is only in the last 18 months or so that Brevis has begun to make a splash in red-ball cricket as well.

To even be discussed among talents like these would be proof of Pretorius' credentials as a potential star. But the overall package is frightening to think of. Unlike the others, he hasn't needed time to settle into any of the formats.

Bat out a draw from a precarious position? Check. Hit international-quality bowlers all around the park? Check. Find the balance in cricket's neglected middle child of a format? Check. All at 19.

Perhaps the only player who can lay claim to being as good across three formats at this age is left-arm quick Mohammad Amir, who played in all three for Pakistan aged 17. His last international before the 2010 spot-fixing ban came just four months after his 18th birthday. At that point, he had taken nearly four wickets per Test, averaging 29; his ODI average stood at 24, with an economy rate of 4.6; and he took 23 wickets in 18 T20Is, conceding at a shade over seven an over.

The talent is clear – what do we know about Pretorius' temperament?

The youthful streak in Pretorius does give itself away at times. "You tend to get bored in four-day cricket if you bat for long with the same guy," he had said after his century against Lions (do you hear the tut-tutting at Gen Z's attention spans?).

"It was tough, but because I played with a lot of the Lions guys at the Paarl Royals [in the SA20], Codi [Yusuf] and I had a bit of a go at each other. So I tried to pick a fight and it kept me in the game; it was good for me. I won’t say it went overboard but it was good for me. It got heated and it got me into the battle."

Pretorius did add in the same interview that he believes red-ball cricket remains the pinnacle of the sport. There is every indication of a level head on his broad shoulders – foremost is the willingness to learn not just from his own experiences, but others' as well.

Titans teammate Brevis himself is only 21. Having experienced much of the same hype as Pretorius currently is, he serves as a mentor of sorts for the youngster.

Also read: After awkward adolescence, 'Baby AB' is all grown up and ready for the top

"Dewald Brevis was in my shoes not so long ago. I've been speaking to him. He's obviously experienced a lot of things at a very young age as well," Pretorius said earlier this month.

"So he's a good teammate to have and a good friend to have. So I speak a lot to him about certain stuff and I just try to sponge of him and learn from his lessons. Actually, we became very good mates, and he's a good person to speak to because we're around the same age. He's a bit older than me, but he's experienced everything, basically all the leagues around the world and he's had a taste of international cricket as well.

"So you can, you speak to him about stuff and lessons he's learned, and then you don't want to make the same mistake. Not that he has made mistakes, but he warns you about certain things. If we go to lunch, we don't speak about much about anything else, we just basically speak about cricket.

"We both have the same intentions and the same goal. So it's really good to be able to have someone like that you can speak to, not feeling that you talk about cricket all the time because we're very similar."

As everything falls in place, Pretorius' time is now

Both players, of course, featured heavily at the Titans' end-of-season awards ceremony on April 16. Pretorius won four in total – Men's Newcomer of the Year, Men's First-Class Player of the Year, Fans' Player of the Year and Men's Player of the Year, while Brevis took home the Men's One-Day Player of the Year and Men's Players' Player of the Year.

The pair's skipper at Titans, Neil Brand (also a Proteas Test captain, lest anyone forget), has already given Pretorius the seal of approval for a graduation to the senior national team. It's not impossible that he is included in the squad for South Africa's upcoming World Test Championship final at Lord's in June.

If he does debut before March 27 next year, he will become the seventh South African teenager, post-apartheid ban, to represent the men's national team. The six before him – Paul Adams, Victor Mpitsang, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Wiaan Mulder and St Stithians College age-mate Kwena Maphaka – were all bowlers or all-rounders. The last teenage batter was Graeme Pollock in 1963, not a shabby act to follow.

It's an old cliché, but so much in cricket is about timing. Not unlike his own batsmanship, Pretorius' career is pinging off the proverbial blade of time.

He is beginning to catch the eye right at the start of a new World Test Championship cycle. White-ball coach Rob Walter has just stepped down, and the environment around the men's team is ripe for new blood. South Africa are building up to a T20 World Cup in a year's time, and an ODI World Cup in two. Pretorius' record thus far is such that he could justifiably be dropped into any one, or all three, of the senior sides.

Even on his next journey with Hampshire in England's T20 Blast, Pretorius will still have his guide Brevis by his side, and the pair could well light up the South Coast as well, potentially furthering both their cases to break into the national side once and for all.

In the world of theatre, a 'triple threat' is a performer who can do all three of act, sing, and dance. At 19, Pretorius is cricket's version of a triple threat wonderkid. It seems like a matter of when, not if, he will pull on the Proteas shirt.

The cricketing world is at his feet – where will he finally end up in the annals of South African cricket?

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