Dewald Brevis looks to AB de Villiers, Shane Warne to complete his all-rounder arc

Dewald Brevis of the Proteas during the first one-day international match between South Africa A and Sri Lanka A at JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on 31 August.Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

6 Oct 2024

South African cricket has a supreme talent who is aiming to add more strings to his bow.

Dewald Brevis is, almost unbelievably, still only 21. The supremely talented batter has already had a notable career between the boundary ropes, having run out for five franchise teams in his three years of playing professional cricket.

But his best years are undoubtedly still ahead of him as he looks to make an impact with the ball in the future too.

Brevis broke onto the scene in a big way in 2022 when he smashed 506 runs – more than 100 more runs than the next best – in six innings at an average of 84.33 during the under-19 World Cup held in the West Indies that year.

Less than a month later the then 18-year-old was snapped up by Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for more than half a million rands, which began his T20 journey in various franchise leagues.

Brevis is firmly engulfed in the Mumbai Indians fraternity, also representing MI Cape Town and MI New York in South Africa and the US’s franchise tournaments respectively. The youngster has even dipped his toes into T10 cricket, representing Samp Army in the Abu Dhabi T10 league.

This year-round franchise cricket chase has raised the suspicion that Brevis’s immense talents will be lost to the shortest format in the long run. But if he had any say about his career, Brevis would be playing every format.

“I like all three formats. My dream is to play all three formats,” he told Daily Maverick.

“I’ve been privileged, and it’s such an honour for me, that my journey started very early. That pushed me into [various] leagues, it pushed me into the Mumbai Indians family, to play for them in a lot of leagues. I’m so grateful for that.

“My passion is all three formats. The red ball, I love it. It’s one of the pinnacles of cricket.

“I have a big passion for Test cricket as well. That’s where you get tested and can tell a lot of stories. If you score a 100, 200 or 300 in Test cricket, that’s very special.”

An all-rounder

Despite the fantastic start to his career, Brevis – like many young batters – has struggled to find consistency. In first-class cricket he averages 37.45 and a smidge more than 40 in domestic 50-over cricket.

Nevertheless, his prodigious talent has been identified by Cricket South Africa, who handed him his debut in T20 international cricket and also tested him against Sri Lanka A, representing SA A in a handful of List A and first-class matches.

He failed to light up any of those opportunities with the bat, outside of a brilliant second-innings 74 off 75 in a first-class match, but it did highlight his potential talent with the ball.

Read more: Proteas look to Springboks for inspiration to bounce back against Ireland

Brevis bowls accurate – albeit not massively turning – leg-breaks. In the one match where South Africa A beat Sri Lanka A, Brevis grabbed four wickets for 46 runs, his best figures in the format.

And, despite being given rare opportunities to show what he can do with the ball, Brevis wholeheartedly believes in his own ability.

“I know I’m a batting all-rounder,” he said. “I’m a leg-spin bowler. I’m not a part-timer, I just need more opportunities.

“[Spin bowling] is close to me and that’s what I want to be able to do in international cricket. I want to bring that other part of me that is there, I want to bring that forward.”

Dewald Brevis bats during the first ODI between South Africa A and Sri Lanka A at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on 31 August 2024. (Photo: Lee Warren / Gallo Images)

Most spin bowlers start out as fast bowlers and convert to the slower stuff at a later stage. Not Brevis. He was bowling leg-spin at five years old while playing mini-cricket with a tennis-like ball.

“Throughout the age groups, throughout school, leg-spin has been such a big part of me,” he said. “As I got a bit older at certain provincial levels, I was seen more as a batter. They didn’t bowl me as much.

“People didn’t notice the ability of my leg-spin too much and then at SA under-19, coach Shukri Conrad [now national Test coach] saw my bowling and my batting and he really gave me a lot of opportunities.”

Outside of Brevis’s brilliant run with the bat at the under-19 World Cup, he also claimed seven scalps with his tidy leg-spin.

“[The talent] is there, it would just be nice if someone just gives me a full go at it,” he said. “I just really love bowling. To be able to bowl leg-spin and to bat is such a privilege.”

Idols

Brevis’s batting technique immediately had people comparing him with legendary South African batter AB de Villiers, dubbing him “Baby AB”.

He has publicly declared his adoration for De Villiers, and the name stuck.

“I’m quite a visual learner. When it comes to batting, AB de Villiers is one of my role models and still is,” Brevis said. “He’s also my mentor. I watched thousands of videos of him. That’s how I developed similarities to him. I didn’t try to do it; it just happened.”

He developed similar idiosyncrasies when bowling, having watched videos of the late Australian legend Shane Warne.

“I watched a lot of Shane Warne videos,” Brevis said. “That’s the person that was in my mind when I learnt visually by watching him.”

Brevis’s parents, who are not cricket aficionados, didn’t even realise that their five-year-old son was doing the most difficult task in cricket when they saw him bowling leg-breaks.

Brevis tells the story: “A dad came to [my dad] and said, ‘Do you know what your son is bowling?’ and my dad said he had no idea, ‘it looks like he’s just bowling’.

“Then the parent told my dad I was bowling leg-spin. ‘Do you know how difficult that is? You need to get him coaching.’”

From there Brevis’s talent was nurtured with both bat and ball. Brevis, like many cricketers before him, might have had a few hiccups on his journey to the top, but it’s clear that once he stamps his authority he will stay there for a long time. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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An all-rounder

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