A bowling allrounder who combines his searing left-arm pace with lower-order hitting, 20-year-old Marco Jansen was recruited by the defending champions, the Mumbai Indians, for Rs 20 lakh (around R 400,000).
Jansen is quite the intriguing recruit, since he hasn’t played any international cricket for the Proteas, even though he most recently got picked for the Test series against Pakistan. In addition, he’s played only four T20 games, three of which came in the most recent Mzansi Super League.
He’s also played for South Africa A, and more importantly, he was part of the A squad when the Proteas visited India in late 2019. It’s likely the experience from there has played a part in his inclusion for this year’s IPL.
He began his professional career with the VKB Knights, but before this season began, he switched over to the Port Elizabeth based Warriors team in order to push for higher accolades. He’s taken 20 wickets in 4 games of the 4-Day Series this season, and he’ll look to maintain the momentum when the CSA T20 Challenge is underway.
As nice as it is to see a new kid on the block enter the most prestigious T20 league in the world, it won’t be that easy for Jansen to get frequent game time, especially with Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard, and Trent Boult as the three mainstays in the overseas department.
That leaves just the one open door, and there are bowlers with more international experience in the mix, such as New Zealand’s Adam Milne and Australia’s Nathan Coulter-Nile. Regardless, this experience will be priceless for the youngster, and he’s effectively a like-for-like reinforcement for the left-armer Boult.
Similarly, in 2017, the Mumbai Indians recruited Nicholas Pooran, who didn’t have much experience at the time, and now he’s become a household name in various T20 leagues around the world.
It’s a new pinnacle for Marco Jansen. Learning from some of the best in the business and working towards the much-coveted international debut will be his utmost priority, and the situation is bound to only get better from here on out.
