Jacques Rudolph

During a time when the opening spot alongside Graeme Smith was firmly up for grabs in the Test team, Rudolph appeared to be the saving grace after scoring 222 not out on debut against Bangladesh in Chittagong back in 2003 which still remains the highest ever Test score on debut by a left-handed batsman and evidence of a player who patiently waited in line for the smallest of opportunities.

In 2004, he scored his second Test hundred against West Indies at Cape Town scoring 101 as South Africa piled up 532 in the first innings. The match was drawn but South Africa won the four-match series by the margin of 3-0. 

Rudolph oozed class and was a perfect fit for a Proteas team that began to develop into a strong and competitive unit. He played a match-saving inning of 102 not out against Australia in 2005 at Perth. 

A string of promising starts and lack of big scores made his case quite complicated and he was sidelined from South Africa’s team in 2006. Rudolph signed a Kolpak deal with Yorkshire, ultimately declaring himself unavailable for South African selection in 2007. But, in 2011, on the back of a few very successful seasons at Yorkshire, Rudolph returned to the Proteas squad under Gary Kirsten and went on a famous run of victories over the likes of Australia, New Zealand, England, and Sri Lanka, and has been described by some as the greatest South African Test team ever.

After a failure in the 2012 tour of Australia, he was dropped in favour of Dean Elgar and Rudolph wasn’t awarded the central contract by Cricket South Africa. Rudolph’s second coming in international cricket was not successful. 

The following summer he moved to Durham in order to get constant time on the pitch and proved to be a significant signing playing over 50 tests. Having been part of several seasons in county cricket, predominantly with Yorkshire for whom he has amassed 5,429 first-class runs. 

(As of April 2021)