From beating Kohli in the nets to making IPL debut, Marco Jansen’s story will make you smile

Marco Jansen is a 20-year-old bowling all-rounder from South Africa. He is a left-arm pacer. He made his First-Class and List A debut for North West. The following year, he played his maiden T20 game, representing Knights in the 2018–19 CSA T20 Challenge.

Mumbai Indians (MI) purchased Marco Jansen at the auction ahead of the IPL 2021 at his base price of INR 20 lakh. MI have admitted that they had been tracking Marco for the last two years.

The story goes back to 2018 when India had toured South Africa for a full-fledged tour. India lost the Test series by losing the first two games of the three-Test series. Ahead of the third Test in Johannesburg, Team India appointed a few local bowlers for their batsmen’s net sessions.

A 17-year-old Marco beat Kohli thrice in a row outside off stump. When Marco achieved one of his best memories of his cricketing career, he was yet to play for the Under-19 of his franchise, Highveld Lions.

An impressed Kohli acknowledged the talent of the young bowler. “Well bowled” - these were the words of Kohli that would forever be watched in the mind of Jansen.

Yes, you read that right. Marco has a twin brother, Duan. Both of them are left-arm seamers and huge fans of Aussie great Mitchell Johnson. They are close to 7 feet, have nice seam positions and are believed to have the perfect action to generate some extra bounce out of any surface. their high-arm actions are perfect to get some extra bounce out of any surface.

The twins bowled at almost every batsman of the Indian team and troubled most of them. They were deservedly praised by Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri, Ajinkya Rahane and others. The brothers were so impressive that India invited them for their net sessions for the next two days.

Duan represents the Knights in South Africa’s domestic set up, while Marco represents the Warriors.

Duan and Marco’s father, Koos, was a former rugby union player, who represented Free State Cheetahs.

While Marco is a little bit taller than his brother, Duan is 15 minutes older, which gives the latter a certain older-sibling right, such as he could keep the photo of the two with Kohli when Marco moved to Port Elizabeth to play domestic cricket for the Warriors.