Simon Harmer’s impressive four-wicket haul near the close of Day 2 in the Durban Test versus Bangladesh may have reinforced his quality and promise as the South African off-spinner. But the 33-year-old continues to carry doubts about his capabilities at the top-level game.
Harmer was rated as a potential spin great within the Proteas ranks when in 2017, he decided to cut short his international career and sign a Kolpak deal with Essex County Cricket Club. Playing for the club, he emerged as one of the world’s best contemporary first-class bowlers and spinners, helping them clinch two Championship titles.
Once Brexit put paid to Kolpak deals in English cricket, he returned to South African domestic game and earned a national comeback during the tour of New Zealand as Keshav Maharaj’s back-up. But despite being a largely successful cricketer wherever he has played, the player doesn’t yet feel sure if he can do it in the international arena.
“There’s still questions. Like am I good enough to play international cricket?. I’ve done it for Essex, I’ve done it at county level, I’ve come back and done it for the Titans but am I still good enough [for International cricket]?”
he was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
What Harmer is going through can be termed a natural phenomenon for any player coming back to international cricket after a prolonged stint at the levels below. The off-spinner has regularly run through batting units in first-class cricket over the last five years, but confidence derived out of consistent success against quality Test match line-ups is a different beast.
It doesn’t help that Harmer has lost the status of South Africa’s No.1 spinner to Maharaj and only walks into the side when, like they have for the Kingsmead fixture, the South African think-tank walks into a game with two spinners.
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For whatever it is worth on a mental level, Harmer could still feel quite satisfied with his figures of four for 42 off 20 overs on a green seaming deck in Durban. The off-spinner will be hoping to bag more as the Test match resumes on Aprul 3, with the hosts eyeing further inroads into the Bangladesh batting unit. The visitors are reeling at 98 for four, still trailing South Africa’s 367 by 269 runs.
