South Africa's top three engine room crucial to salvaging the visitors' tour in final Test

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith is writing exclusively for The Independent this summer. Here he casts his eye over the visitors' struggling batsmen

Dean Elgar and Heino Kuhn have failed to click this series (Getty)

Old Trafford could prove to be the last chance saloon for both England’s Keaton Jennings and the under-fire Heino Kuhn of South Africa.

Both have learned that once you make the step up to this level, technical chinks in your game tend to be ruthlessly exposed and picked at by bowlers – far more so than in the First Class game where both players have made their impact.

Jennings of England is nearer the start of his career than Kuhn, but you get the impression that this fourth Test Match is the last opportunity for both to show that they belong at this level.

Unfortunately for Heino, his six innings in Test Cricket have yielded no answers to the question of who will be the long-term partner for Dean Elgar. The last two Test series have seen South Africa’s opening partnership average less than 13 per innings, and when you think back to when the Test team has been at its strongest the opening partnerships have been solid.

Given how much cricket Elgar and Kuhn have played together for Titans, it’s a shame that it just hasn’t clicked in this series. Make no mistake, England is up there as one of the toughest and most demanding places to open the batting, but there have been glaring holes in Heino’s technique which England have both noted and exploited.

My gut would lead me to pick Aiden Markram for this game. He’s young, talented, and will likely have a lot more international cricket in front of him than Heino Kuhn if he could settle quickly. The Test side face Bangladesh and Australia at home this South African summer, and there has to be a degree of looking ahead to those series.

The opening stand, as I say, is hugely important in terms of the team’s overall success. Constantly being 10-1 sees a greater amount of pressure fall on the shoulders of Hashim Amla and Faf Du Plessis, in a line-up where so much emphasis is put on the top six scoring heavily.

Heino Kuhn is bowled out for 34 runs during the first day of the second Test (Getty)

Who to go with in this game becomes a 50/50 call, but to look at the series Kuhn has endured objectively, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that he can progress quickly at this level. As a professional sportsman, you don’t need to be told that your chances are running out when your performances have been poor – Heino will know the situation he’s in.

How he responds, if selected, will likely decide whether his first foray in to test cricket will be his last.

Elgar has been a revelation in this series, showing how far he’s improved since coming in to the international game. He’s stood out not only for South Africa, but also in terms of how hard he’s been prepared to fight and scrap for his runs.

Heino Kuhn with Aiden Markram during a South Africa nets session (Getty)

There is a worrying trend of a lack of player responsibility in modern Test Cricket. When conditions aren’t batsmen friendly, we’re seeing a real decline in the ability or perhaps willingness of players to graft through a session. Dean has shown that there is still space for a battling player in the modern game, drawing superlatives from both sets of fans for his classic hundred at The Oval.

A plus point for South Africa will be having Vernon Philander fully fit. His absence throughout the last game put pressure on Chris Morris, from whom we’ve seen something of a Jekyll and Hyde performance so far from Trent Bridge to The Oval.

Morris had a superb game at Trent Bridge in contributing to a big win, but at The Oval he missed his lengths by a huge margin time and time again. Yes, he’s in that side as a bowler who comes on to break a partnership, but he’ll have walked away from The Oval knowing that his longevity at this level will depend on him making big strides in terms of improving his accuracy. A point emphasised by the eventual return of Dale Steyn to the fold.

South Africa have one chance to salvage something from what has been a poor tour for the batsmen. How that top three engine room performs will go long way to determining whether they can.