Duan Jansen looks to go where Marco hasn't feared to tread

Alongside Marco Jansen in the green and glorious garden of the South African High Commissioner's residence in Kensington, one of London's poshest areas, on a golden July evening last year stood someone who looked a lot like Marco Jansen. They were almost identical, in fact. Both were tall — one topped the other by five centimetres — and as lean as anyone could safely be without snapping like a drought-hit sapling. They looked at the same world with the same serious eyes from under swatches of the same dark brown hair.

Both bowl left-arm fast and have developed into punishing right-handed batters. But the Jansen twins, Duan and Marco, are not the same.

Marco made his South Africa debut in a Test against India at Centurion in December 2021. He has since played 224 matches, 82 of them internationals of all kinds. Duan has had 103 games after Marco's Test debut — none of them for South Africa.

Convention says that shouldn't happen to older brothers; Duan is the elder by 15 minutes. Then again, Marco is taller by five centimetres. There is no explaining how one twin goes places the other doesn't. But that didn't stop Duan from trying to make it make sense.

"When his career started it was difficult because the media and other people asked a lot of questions," Duan told a press conference on Wednesday. "But from four or five years ago, two years into his Proteas journey, it all changed for me mentally. I had to take my own route, and it changed how I play, how I approach training, how I see his games when I watch him. I've asked [him] a lot of questions after games and pre-games. I see that as a positive because you can get a glimpse of how the Proteas set-up runs. Your own mindset should be in this environment, and that's how I've set mine up.

"Our relationship has got better and stronger. That's a great thing to have, especially with one of your family members. Once that happened I reaped the rewards."

How many could be seen in the coming days. Duan is part of the squad who will start a triangular T20 tournament in Windhoek on Friday. The hosts and Zimbabwe are the other competing sides.

But Duan might never have made it this far. He played for North West from January 2019 to February 2025, going nowhere slowly for much of that time. Not least because he twice broke a foot. Marco won his first 13 Test caps during this period, taking three five-wicket hauls and scoring three half-centuries including a solid 84 not out on debut. Small wonder, perhaps, that Duan considered walking away from the game. Instead he hung in there.

"To wake up every morning and say 'I have to do this to improve' was the most difficult part because it didn't feel like I was improving even though I was putting in the hard work," Duan said. "I saw a family psychologist, which helped a lot. That also helped my spiritual life. I had a purpose in this career; God put me in this place for a reason. So He's going to make it work. It made me stronger and more patient. I thought, 'OK, it's not going well right now. But it's going to pay off.' Three years down the line I'm smiling."

Duan, who moved to the Titans before last season, has since made a happy habit of turning up when his teams have needed him most. He scored a matchwinning run-a-ball 61 not out to help the Titans beat the Lions by three wickets in the One-Day Cup final at the Wanderers in March and was named South Africa's domestic one-day player of the season. He is freshly back from taking 16 wickets in the T20 Blast, which made him Gloucestershire's leading bowler in the competition.

A South Africa debut is the logical next step. The step after that — partnering Marco in the same South Africa side — could be more tricky. Is there room for two long, lean left-arm bowling allrounders in the same XI?

"One of our personal goals is to play together for the Proteas, but we know that's not going to be easy," Duan said. "If it means we have to come in and out for each other, or be on tour together and one sits out and the other one plays, that's fine.

"But if we do the right things for a longer period of time the chance for us to play together for our country is going to be better. We have to walk our own way; I have to do a job, he has to do his job. And if it aligns that way we're both going to be happy.

"He's done a lot of good things for the Proteas. I'm starting my journey, so I still have to show it on this stage. But I'm here for a reason and I'm here for a certain goal and I'm going to reach that goal. If I have to show that to the world and to myself that I belong here, I'm going to do that."

Time was when Gary Kirsten would be introduced, particularly to foreigners, as "Peter's brother". That changed when Gary coached India to the men's 2011 World Cup title. Doubtless Peter Kirsten has since become "Gary's brother". It's difficult to imagine something similar happening to the Jansens, but sibling parity could be on the cards. Currently the spotlight is squarely on Marco.

Until now Duan has been known in the wider world for two reasons: being Marco's brother and, with Marco, bowling to Virat Kohli in the Wanderers nets in January 2018. Duan's path has been starkly unlike that of Dewald Brevis, who has been famous everywhere the game is played but particularly in India since he scored 506 runs in the 2022 Under-19 World Cup in the Caribbean. That broke the record Shikhar Dhawan set in 2004.

South Africa didn't win in 2022: Brevis' 130-ball 138 helped them beat Bangladesh by two wickets in the seventh-place play-off. But his career was launched there and then.

He hasn't made the most of the promise he showed four years ago. Although he hammered an undefeated 125 off 56 in the senior South Africa team's 53-run win over Australia in a T20I in Darwin in August last year, he has scored two Test 50s in six innings and one half-century in each format in his other 36 white-ball international innings.

That said, let's remember Brevis is only 23. And that he has been famous since he was a child. We're dealing with a human thrust into the spotlight, not someone who should be measured in star power. How had he handled being so well known for so much of his young life?

"I believe God placed me in this position; to be out there to play this game," Brevis told his own press conference on Wednesday. "All of it has been a blessing and an honour and I enjoy every moment of it. It's about knowing that I don't play for myself and that there's a bigger purpose. I enjoy being out there doing what I love."

God is doing a significant amount of the heavy lifting for Duan Jansen as well as for Dewald Brevis. That will rankle those who balk at the idea of a real or imagined deity stooping to the level of sport. But if that's what it takes to help people keep their perspective safe in an ever madder world, who are we to quibble?