“He is diligent with his work. Even when he just plays as a batter, in the white-ball stuff as well, he does his keeping work as well. So it’s not like he’s had to dust them [his keeping pads and gloves] off and start over again.”
Lurking on the same ground was Verreynne. He wore the face of a man who knows he won’t play the next game despite saying “it’s all good,” when offered commiserations that the gloves had been taken away from him. It’s widely accepted in South African cricket circles that Verreynne is a better wicketkeeper than Rickelton, and Verreynne would be right to feel down on his luck on that score. But Rickelton is no newbie to the job.
Over the course of his decade-long career, Rickelton has kept wicket in close to two-thirds of the 341 matches he has played in at the competitive level across all formats. That includes keeping for his South African domestic team Lions, for Mumbai Indians (IPL), for MICT (SA20) and most recently for Sunrisers Leeds (Hundred). It’s those skills that van Wyk hopes will translate to the Test arena.
“I think he’s a first-choice keeper,” van Wyk said. “He has kept unbelievably well. And if you follow white-ball cricket, and his performances in IPL, you know it’s still a ball coming down at you. It’s still cricket. The movements are the same. The way you glove it is exactly the same. Technically, he is very good.”
“Ricks has kept to really good spinners before as well, [like to] Rashid Khan. He’s kept to everyone, basically. So the bowlers he will keep to are familiar to him. I’m confident he will do a good job”
Kruger van Wyk, South Africa’s fielding coach
Even on what is considered South Africa’s slowest Test surface at St George’s Park in Gqeberha, van Wyk does not expect Rickelton to be challenged by the possibility of keeping to spin, though he may have to stand up to the stumps to the likes of Wiaan Mulder and Dane Paterson.
The trouble is that Rickelton will have two jobs to do well, keep wicket and score runs, and he will likely have to do the second of those in an unfamiliar position. While word from the South Africa camp is that they are yet to decide whether Rickelton can open the batting as well as keep wicket, the inclusion of Matthew Breetzke, who has opened the batting 59 times in 115 first-class innings, suggests Rickelton is moving down the order.
With Tristan Stubbs dropped, there is a gap at No. 5, though that might be occupied by uncapped batter Marques Ackerman. That would leave Rickelton to bat at No. 6, ahead of Mulder, whose place is also dependent on the composition of the attack.
In Durban, Rickelton was the first to show possible signs of fatigue when, after fielding for 137.2 overs and then being required to open the batting, he was dismissed or a third-ball duck after edging at a wide ball with hard hands. Given that Rickelton followed that up by departing for 2 after being bounced out in the second innings, it also seems like South Africa are taking a gamble on asking him to do more in the next match. But van Wyk doesn’t think so.
“With regard to managing energies, resources and concentration, I think it’s going to be really good for Ricks to have the gloves,” he said. “It engages him in the game even more. He’s someone who thrives with extra responsibility. Having the gloves is going to be good for his game overall. He’s a natural leader as well. So I’ve got no worries about his tank being too small and him not being able to switch from keeping to batting. He’s been doing it for years anyway. He’ll be fine.”
Rickelton will also know his batting form is in the spotlight too. He has only one fifty from his last 12 Test innings, and a top score of 35 from his last eight. As much as Verreynne was under pressure, so was Rickelton, and the faith South Africa have kept in him will only increase the scrutiny on him. Does he feel the heat?
“Having the gloves is going to be good for his game overall. He’s a natural leader as well. So I’ve got no worries about his tank being too small and him not being able to switch from keeping to batting. He’s been doing it for years anyway. He’ll be fine.”
Kruger van Wyk feels South Africa aren’t gambling by asking Ryan Rickelton to do more
“Everyone wants to do well. It’s not a case of when you have to do well it becomes a problem,” van Wyk said. “It’s nothing different from what you normally face in an international sport.”
A while after the rest of the squad had left in Gqeberha, Rickelton set up to stay behind with van Wyk for a little extra catching. For the final 30 minutes, he practised standing up to a batter and taking close catches. Rickelton worked specifically on his movements in anticipating where the batter would play the ball, very much like what Steven Smith, the great fielder in the opposition camp, does at slip. Asked what makes Smith so good at what he does, van Wyk was philosophical.
“I read a wonderful quote this week about Roy Keane saying that that type of skill is made when a boy is obsessed with a ball,” he said. “To teach that sort of stuff is so difficult. You’ve just got such a great feel for where the ball is going.”
Is Rickelton, whose father was the director of sport at St Stithians, one of South Africa’s most prestigious schools, a boy obsessed with a ball? “Ricks is incredibly obsessed with cricket,” van Wyk said. “In a healthy manner.”
And the catching practice continued.
Firdose Moonda is Cricinfo’s senior correspondent for Africa and women’s cricket