The second season of SA20 is underway and has so far proved to be a challenging one for MI Cape Town’s Dewald Brevis. The highly-rated right-handed batter has managed only two double-digit scores in six matches and is averaging a poor 8.16.
Following his record-breaking show at the ICC U19 World Cup 2022 combined with an eerie similarity to the batting style of AB de Villiers, Brevis had raised expectations.
Brevis had broken the record for the most runs scored in a single edition of a U19 World Cup, previously held by India’s Shikhar Dhawan who scored 505 runs in the 2004 edition.
Brevis’ blistering form then got him an Indian Premier League contract in the same year with Mumbai Indians. He scored 161 runs at a strike rate of 142.48.
At the inaugural SA20, he scored 235 runs at a strike rate of 117.5, a decent enough show.
In an interaction with CricketNext, South Africa legend Herschelle Gibbs says that Brevis is an exciting talent but his below-par performances have raised questions.
“Dewald Brevis is an interesting one and I obviously caught wind of his name like around two years ago where he had burst onto the scene as he had a fantastic Under-19 World Cup and Mumbai Indians then got hold of him and had sort of put him on this pedestal but for me, I think it’s a bit of a concern that you know with all that talent and expectation comes performances and when people don’t see that performance coming from you, there are always a lot of question marks that come up,” Gibbs said.
Brevis, dubbed ‘Baby AB’, has been struggling with form in T20 cricket.
Gibbs feels that for Brevis to succeed, the 20-year-old has to do more than just copy De Villiers and advises him to stop playing T20 leagues for a couple of years and focus solely on domestic cricket to ‘nurture his talent’.
“I think for me, you know, he still needs time to nurture his talent, and he’s a wonderful talent. I think, you know, a couple of seasons of just domestic cricket in all formats will do him a world of good – just mentally and from a technical point of view and putting down his own sort of stamp of originality. I think he was so engrossed in how AB plays that he almost tried to match him, shot for shot,” Gibbs said.
“If there was one, maybe better advice, that I could give him (Brevis) was probably to spend a couple of years playing local cricket in all the formats and try to stamp his authority over and bring his own blueprints with regards to how he wants to play. There’s nothing wrong with trying to be like AB, but you can’t be exactly like another player was. He might as well be like a clone or robot, and I look at various other great batters that you know, they all looked up to certain players, but they brought their own style of play, etc. and with Dewald Brevis, I think he got so engrossed with AB that he almost wanted to match him shot for shot,” he added.
Gibbs says Brevis isn’t living up to the expectations.
“So, he got one or two scores last season, but he should take break from all the T20 cricket leagues once this league is finished, and then just concentrate on all the formats in domestic cricket. Yes, you can go play the T20 cricket in our winter when there’s obviously no cricket in South Africa, but I think his performance is going to come under the spotlight that he’s not sort of living up to these huge expectations that comes with it,” Gibbs added.
Gibbs feels that SA20 is nurturing young talents as some of them are performing exceptionally well and these are positive signs for the national side, especially in view of the T20 World Cup 2024.
“(Tristan) Stubbs is having a great, a lot better season than he had last season. (Jordan) Hermann got a fantastic 100 the other day and it’s nice that they’re all sort of putting their hand up and realising what they can achieve. From a youngster’s point of view, once you start getting big scores, you know people expect that but it’s also a realisation of how you went about it. The particular surface you played, what you did really well, what you can improve on and obviously being a T20 World Cup year, it’s great for South Africa that the local players shine and it’s so important because it’s a local league. So yeah, Stubbs and Hermann, it’s great to see them putting their hands up,” stated Gibbs.
In the ongoing SA 2024, MI Cape Town’s Ryan Rickleton has been in stunning form, amassing 355 runs from just six innings. He has already struck four half-centuries.
With the T20 World Cup now a few months away, the 27-year-old Rickleton is undoubtedly presenting a strong case for a spot in South Africa’s squad.
“Rickleton has been phenomenal, and you know (Tabraiz) Shamsi is good. Heinrich Klaasen, you know, is continuing to be a thorn in the flesh of many oppositions and long may that last. But yeah, it’s just good to see some of these youngsters performing nicely,” Gibbs said.
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