Marco Jansen Steps Up as South Africa's Leading Bowler Against Australia
Marco Jansen has spent most of his international life running in with a new ball that belonged, in spirit if not in hand, to Kagiso Rabada or Lungi Ngidi. On Thursday at Kingsmead, it’s his now. No safety net. No senior spearhead at the other end. Just a 2.06-metre left-armer leading South Africa’s attack against Australia.
For once, the numbers tell a story that feels personal.
Across formats, Jansen has opened or bowled the second over of an innings 74 times. On 54 of those occasions – almost 73% – Rabada or Ngidi shared the new ball. His international education has been stitched to theirs, every early over framed by their pace, their nous, their presence.
Now both are missing from this three-match ODI series. The comfort of habit is gone.
“Those two not being a part of the squad is a loss,” Jansen said on Monday. “They’re world-class bowlers, especially in South Africa. They know how to bowl in these conditions, and they know how to get the most out of the ball on a particular day. It feels like I’m going to have to take that leadership role and lead from the front for the first time.”
He has done it before, of course, even if it didn’t feel like this. In his 21 Tests he has taken the new ball only four times, all of them in India last November when Rabada was sidelined with a rib injury. Those were his only first-over assignments in the longest format, though he has shared the new ball 16 times – always with Rabada.
The pattern repeats in white-ball cricket. In ODIs, Jansen has been trusted with the new ball 14 times: eight with Ngidi at the other end, three with Rabada. In the 12 matches where he shared the new ball, Ngidi bowled first seven times and Rabada three. In T20Is, Jansen has opened up 18 times; Rabada has followed him in the second over on seven occasions, Ngidi twice, Gerald Coetzee and Aiden Markram three times each. When Jansen has been the second-over option in T20Is, Ngidi has taken the new ball six times, Rabada twice.
Everywhere you look, the same picture: Jansen stepping into the contest with one of South Africa’s senior quicks alongside him. A junior partner, but a vital one. A foil, not the focal point.
That changes now.
The injuries and absences that have shredded South Africa’s fast-bowling stocks have left Jansen as the last established seamer standing for this series. Marco, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee and Kwena Maphaka are the frontline quicks named for the ODIs against Australia, with Duan Jansen also in the wider group after starting his international white-ball career in Namibia last month.
There is a tantalising possibility lurking behind the current crisis. If the trend continues and the selectors stay bold, Keshav Maharaj – a left-arm spinner – could one day find himself in a Test XI flanked by Marco and Duan Jansen, Maphaka and Basson. A battery of left-arm options stretching from Kingsmead in October, where the three-Test series against Australia begins on the 9th, through the Bangladesh Tests at the Wanderers and Centurion in November, and into a home series against England from Boxing Day to early January.
That’s for later. Jansen doesn’t have the time, or much interest, in the “what ifs” right now. His job is simpler and harder: take the ball, set the tone, and do it without the men who shaped him.
“I base what I think leadership looks like on playing with KG and Lungi,” he said. “When things go sideways or it’s tough, especially when we’re in the field, they have a way of calming and slowing things down. That’s what I’ll be trying to do.
“Because the last thing you want when you’re struggling in an over or at the death when the ball is flying around is someone just giving solutions and saying do this or do that. It’s important to pick up on the moments when a bowler needs time to slow things down and ask simple questions; things like what’s the plan here or how are we going to get this guy off strike.
“We do all the work before the game. We know what plans we want to put into action, what balls we want to bowl, and which fields we want to set. On game day it’s all about how to get the guys in a mental space where they can execute their gameplans. It’s about getting the best out of them.”
That is the language of someone who has been listening closely. Rabada’s intensity, Ngidi’s tactical clarity – Jansen has absorbed both and is now expected to project them onto a younger, less tested group.
The fact he is fit enough to do so is not a small mercy. South Africa’s quicks have been battered by injuries, workloads and bad luck. Jansen, too, has walked that tightrope.
His recent first-class outing for the Titans against the Dolphins in Centurion, from September 10 to 12, almost didn’t happen the way he wanted.
“My build-up to that game didn’t go as planned,” he said. “I planned to bowl two or three weeks before but then I got sick. I was on antibiotics for a week-and-a-half, two weeks. That cut my preparation short, so I only had three days of prep and felt heavily undercooked going into the match. I also saw two physios as well for small stuff. Coming back from after The Hundred I had to sort out stiffness in the body.”
On the field, there was no hint of being undercooked. Jansen bowled nine overs in the first innings for figures of 3/39, then walked out with the bat and cracked seven fours in a 45-ball 37. In the Dolphins’ second innings he stretched himself properly, sending down 17 overs and taking 4/61 as the Titans stormed to an innings-and-60-run victory.
Those numbers matter less than the message: he can still hit his straps, still get through the work, still be the all-format force South Africa need.
Now comes the harder part. No Rabada. No Ngidi. No familiar figure jogging in from the other end while he adjusts his field and settles into a spell. Just Jansen, the ball, and an Australian top order at Kingsmead.
The apprenticeship is over. The next phase starts with his name on the team sheet as the leader of the attack, and no asterisk beside it.
