Marco Jansen, a tall left-arm pacer made his debut for South Africa in the Boxing Day Test against India at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Jansen, may not be an unfamiliar name to Indian viewers anymore having been picked up by the Mumbai Indians in the auction for the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Jansen played two games for the five-time champions and picked two crucial wickets on his debut against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

However, the fans may not be aware that Jansen had bowled to India’s Test skipper Virat Kohli before. More than three years ago, Jansen and his twin brother Duan bowled to Kohli in the nets before the third and the final Test match of the series at Johannesburg. Kohli was having a net session at the Wanderers and a tall, 17-year old left-arm pacer bowled to the Indian captain and even beat him on a few occasions, after which he was impressed by his pace and accuracy.

Since then Jansen has made giant strides in domestic cricket and was part of South Africa’s Under-19 side in 2019. In 19 first-class games, the 21-year old has taken 70 wickets at an outstanding average of 22.20 with the best of 6/38. 

For the last couple of years, Jansen has been on the fringes of the senior team and received his maiden call-up in the Test squad for the Pakistan tour earlier this year. He didn’t make his debut, but it helped him get a maiden IPL call-up at the base price of INR 20 Lakh.

Mumbai Indians’ Director of Cricket Zaheer Khan after the auction had praised him saying, “The youngster Marco (Jansen) has been a very highly rated bowler in South Africa. We were actually surprised to see him go at such a low price. We were expecting some more bidding around him.”

“We’ve been having an international scout program put in the place in the last few years like we have had an Indian scout program. This year he was in the Test squad going to Pakistan. We had a quiet word with Quinny (Quinton de Kock) and he said ‘you have to go for him, he is completely ready now’,” the former India pacer added.

Now, almost a year later, Jansen has got the chance to make his debut and will be up against Kohli again, this time in a Test match.