For the past 25 years, the South African cricket squad has been one of the most dangerous. They were one of the most feared teams in the world in the 2000s, and travelling on a tour to South Africa during that period would be a task that most teams would avoid. They are the only team to have a better win/loss ratio against Australia.

South Africa used to be unquestionably the finest touring side in the world, capable of defeating powerful sides such as India, Australia, and England in their backyard. They were the first and only second team to defeat India in their backyard in ODI during the last decade. 

The team which used to bring fear in the opposition team saw a sudden decline after the 2015 WC and the decline hit at its worst after their most dependable player took a sudden retirement.

Downfall

Previously, the South African cricket team had a plethora of jewels in their lineup, making them formidable. However, in the last few years since AB's retirement, the team has revolved solely around AB de Villiers. He was the one who used to do the majority of the work, carrying the entire squad on his shoulders.

The retirement of AB de Villiers signalled the end of an era for the African nation. JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, and Hashim Amla declared their retirement from international cricket following the World Cup. Dale Steyn has also declared his retirement.

CSA overlooking the FAF Du Plessis was also one of their problems.

With All these players retiring and a few senior players ignored by CSA, the South African cricket team, seem totally harmless and easily defeatable. 

South Africa cricket went in their transition phase riding on the youngsters, SA was a very easy opponent to play and as expected they suffered defeat quite easily from a very unexpected team.

The biggest issue with this era coming to an end is the inability of their cricketing board, Cricket South Africa (CSA), to recruit capable and competent replacements for these stalwarts. The young people who were given a chance likewise fell short.

SA always had a talent pool but their reservation system sucks, as per rule there must be 6 non-white in the starting XI, This is one of the reasons why many white players choose county cricket over international cricket – Kevin Pietersen, Jason Roy is an example. This means that South Africa will lose talent.

Riding on Youngster

After the retirement of their veteran player, SA went on transition riding highly on the youngster. The side was dominated by the youngster and was as per the new reservation rule. But they didn't perform as expected. The young people who were given a chance likewise fell short. Thye went out of the box to choose Temba Bavuma as their LOI's captain after Dekock didn't accept the role. CSA received huge criticism for this step as Bavuma is the weakest link of this team which is already trying to rebuild itself.

Rise that no one expected

South African team shocked everyone with their performance in the 2021 T20 WC, they won 4 out of the 5 games but still were not able to make it to the knockout because of their one narrow defeat against Australia. SA defeated the tournament favourite England quite comfortably.

When no one expected South Africa will beat India and called India to favourite to win their first test series in SA after decades and as per expectation SA lost its first game and the easy series win was seen on the cards.

But wait there is a twist to the tale, the underdogs snub the world with their excellent comeback and win the series 2-1. The team led by Dean Elgar did the miracle and his bowler win the game for them.

When it seemed like fluke series win, the SA ODI team under Bavuma completely outplayed India in ODI's by whitewashing them. The youngster that was criticized by the people for wasting the opportunity begins to get praise and they begin to show the result of time being invested in them.

And suddenly it looks like they are coming out of their transition phase after the great rebuild. This team is riding high on  RVD, Markram, QDK and their bowlers. Everyone is doing their job. 

Last night they marked the comfortable win against the world champions England in the first match of the series. 

Their biggest test will be in red ball format against England and Australia in their homes, whom they are set to play very soon and these two series will define whether SA will qualify for the final of WTC or not.

Expectation

The story of South African cricket is full of hurdles and how they have crossed each one of them. Every hurdle makes them stronger, to the point, of being labelled as “Unbeatable”.

This tag confine to the South African team that was quoted with the legend and was a nightmare for any team in both home and away conditions.

It's not possible to make the legacy of the old SA team but this youngster and lo less. SA is currently at the top of the WTC table and if they manage to get over the baseball the English team then the final of WTC is not that far. Another expectation would be to cross the hurdle that SA fails every time in the ICC tournaments.

Asking for the trophy would be a bit harsh from this youngster which is set to be up against the other team that possesses a mixture of youngsters and experience. But the term impossible didn't exist in cricket. They failed to qualify for the knockout last time in T20 WC just by losing one game and now we hope they will go to knockouts and try to break the tag of the choker.

This could be possible as there won't be the pressure of favouriting this team and expecting proteas fan other wouldn't expect a trophy from them that will reduce the pressure from the team and can help them to perform better.