Kyle Verreynne of South Africa during day four of the ICC World Test Championship final match between South Africa and Australia at Lord's Cricket Ground on 14 June, 2025 in London. (Photo: Paul Harding / Gallo Images) 
The Proteas head into the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle with a new target on their backs.
They were unlikely champions, having sealed a five-wicket win over Australia in June at Lord’s in England.
The Proteas only had one tour to the subcontinent in the previous cycle, which ran from 2023 to 2025. It was in Bangladesh where they claimed a 2-0 series win – their first in the subcontinent in a decade. They open the ongoing WTC cycle with a tour to Pakistan, starting with the first Test in Lahore on Sunday.
“We’re champions now, so there’s a new sort of pressure,” wicketkeeper batter Kyle Verreynne said.
“But I think, as a group, we played the last cycle still feeling a lot of pressure.
“We felt like our fixtures and everything gave us a good chance to get to the final and win it.”
On-field results were inconsistent when the previous cycle started and the team was going through a rebuild with the recent coaching appointment of Shukri Conrad at the time. While those elements were against SA, the schedule they had wasn’t.
No fixtures against England or Australia (until the final) and playing India at home, meant the journey to the apex was achievable, although the side had to string several victories together to make it a reality – albeit while playing at home.
“It’s definitely a new pressure now,” Verreynne, who hit the winning runs against Australia, said. “Every team that we play is going to want to beat us that much more.
“We’re champions now, so there’s an expectation now that we probably didn’t have.
“It’s something that we’ve spoken about quite openly and quite honestly.”
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TL_2410472.jpg "The Proteas celebrate after winning the World Test Championship Final over Australia by five wickets at Lord's. (Photo: Paul Harding/Gallo Images)")
Similar scenario
According to Verreynne, SA will be looking at their series victory over Bangladesh last year as inspiration for their upcoming matches against Pakistan.
Before SA met Bangladesh in October last year, they had played six matches in the WTC cycle. They lost three, drew one and won two.
Including their 2-0 series win in Bangladesh, they won their next seven Test matches on the trot, including the WTC final.
It was a historic tour and one that set the team on their path toward silverware in conditions where they had not tasted victory for a decade.
Read more: Nadine de Klerk powers Proteas to comeback win over India in Women’s World Cup
“Going into the Bangladesh series last year, I think there was a lot of chat about what it would mean if we did get a win,” Verreynne explained.
“The preparations that we put into that series are still quite fresh in our minds.
“We’ve taken a lot of that going into this series. I think it’s quite a similar series in many senses.”
The conditions are expected to be very similar – spin dominating dust bowls.
“I know that wasn’t the start of our cycle last time around, but it felt like that was the tour that got us going,” Verreynne said. “And we’re obviously starting our cycle now, so from that point of view, I think there’s a lot that we take from that Bangladesh series – a lot of good things.”
It was also a tour filled with personal success for the wicketkeeper batter, who was the player of the match in the first Test match, after scoring a brilliant century (114).
Unlike most SA batters – who prefer the ball coming onto the bat hard and fast – Verreynne favours the spinning conditions found in the subcontinent.
“These are probably conditions that have always suited the style of player that I am,” the wristy batter reflected. He was also an excellent hockey player in high school.
“So probably going into the Bangladesh series, I already had quite a bit of confidence about my game and how it would suit conditions. And then doing well there… put me at ease knowing that the conditions that we are expected to be facing, I know what I have to deal with.
“It just brings a lot of clarity knowing that what I’ve done, if I’m able to do the same that I did in Bangladesh, it will hopefully be successful. And I think that’s the same for the team.”
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TL_2409291-1.jpg "Kagiso Rabada of South Africa during day 1 of the ICC World Test Championship final between South Africa and Australia at Lord's Cricket Ground on 11 June 2025. (Photo: Paul Harding/Gallo Images)")
Individual strategies
The strategy for Verreynne is clear: utilise cross-batted sweep shots to keep the scorecard ticking over.
But will the rest of SA’s batters employ the same strategy?
“I think it depends,” he said. “I obviously sweep a lot… So for me personally, that’s obviously going to be a plan.
“But for our team, something that we spoke about as a batting group is just being committed to our own individual strengths.
“There’s a lot of guys that don’t sweep, so I don’t think you’re going to see a whole batting group that’s all of a sudden going to start sweeping now.”
The batters will be focused on their individual strengths to overcome the spin threat, with Verreynne asserting that there will be nine different individual plans to tame the turn.
SA found success in doing exactly that against Bangladesh around the same time last year. They will be hoping that the same strategy sets their path on a similar WTC trajectory. DM
Pakistan vs SA starts at 7am (SA time) on 12 October.