The 26-year-old Keegan Petersen earned his maiden Test call-up as he was named in South Africa’s squad as a replacement for the injured Aiden Markram for the second Test of the ongoing four-match series against England.
Who is he?
Petersen is a right-handed top-order batsman from Paarl and has been playing cricket at the domestic level in South Africa since 2017. He has so far featured in 197 competitive games, including 88 first-class matches, and has scored 7,755 runs across formats.
Markram sustained the injury on the second day of the ongoing Boxing Day Test.#SAvENGhttps://t.co/1zXPUOZv2p
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 28, 2019
How’d he start?
The right-hander rose through the ranks from provincial U19 cricket to the senior side. He played his maiden first-class game for Boland in 2012 and has since progressed to play for Northern Cape in South Africa’s franchise competition. So far, he has made 5,490 first-class runs at an impressive average of 40.66 and also has 15 hundreds to his name.
What happened next?
Petersen has made regular appearances in four-day franchise series. He began showing real promise in the 2017/18 season, scoring 497 runs in nine games at 42.36.
He took his game to the next level in the following season finishing the 2018/19 edition as the highest run-getter of the tournament with 923 runs, including three hundreds, in nine games at an average of 60.88. His exploits included scores of 161 and 165* in a four-day game at the start of the year against Cape Cobras.
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Keegan Petersen (left) made 111 in the second warm-up game against England[/caption]
This season, he has played four games so far in which he has scored 187 runs at 37.40.
Before earning his maiden Test call-up, he also impressed the selectors with a brilliant 111 from 240 balls in the second warm-up game against England prior to the start of the series for South Africa A.
Challenges?
Petersen, if given a chance to feature in South Africa XI at the New Year’s Test, will bank on a his reasonable first-class experience to try and succeed at the top level. However, there’s still competition for spots in the team. Temba Bavuma is likely to be fit for the Newlands game, and in that case, South Africa might consider giving the opening slot to Rassie van der Dussen, who has experience of opening the innings at first-class level. They also have a spare opener in Pieter Malan who could be considered at the top.
