Good batsmen evoke comparisons with contemporaries. Great batsmen transgress eras. Hashim Amla Career deserves to be placed in the latter category.
Rare are those cricketers who amass so many runs. But even rarer are those who remain utterly sane, head-buried in dignity, feet firmly planted in the ground while their records rise like tall skyscrapers of world cricket.
Hashim Amla Career decorated the wall of South African cricket. The more he achieved- and he achieved a lot- the more humble he became.
Unfazed by the fame, unmoved by the plaudits such as Hashim Amla Career
Here was a batsman whose successes shouldn’t merely be restricted to the weight of his mighty numbers, but rather to the cult of his personality that embodied Cricket’s true spirit; that of being a gentleman’s sport.
Hashim Amla Career from the beginning to the moment he was dropped playing only three Tests, to the point of returning with a 149 against the Kiwis in just his fourth Test, throughout his inspiring ODI feats and until that moment when a cricketing newbie in Joffra Archer flummoxed him with a bouncer in the World Cup, compelling the batsman to leave the ground, Hashim Amla remained the same bloke throughout.
Focused. Passionate. Simple.
But there does persist a confusion regarding him. What should he be credited more for?
Should Hashim Amla be lauded for authoring a voluminous book of runs, his career shining bright with over 18,000 international runs along with 55 centuries?
Or should he be congratulated for reminding Cricket’s contemporary names and those in the making about an important facet one can’t do without- the importance of being earnest?
In a sport’s narrative written by superstars, Sachin and Lara, Ponting and Kallis, Sangakkara and Kohli, Root and Williamson- Hashim Amla arrived to broaden our imagination.
He opened our minds toward accepting simplicity in a time of histrionics.
His batting was about the peak possibilities a batsman could reach as much as it was about furthering one’s ambition through pure relentlessness.
It only took him 41 Test innings to become South Africa’s new dependable number 3 batsman in the game and soon after, their most reliable opener since the great Graeme Smith.
Most great batsmen are regarded for playing multiple great innings in a particular format. But while he was instantly recognized as a Test specialist, Hashim Amla’s forbearance and commitment allowed him to score seriously incredible numbers in the limited format of the game as well.
But Amla’s batting warrants to be treated with a sense of mysticism.
How did a patient, gentle accumulator of Test runs go on to become an aggressor, a run-machine in the limited format?
In a sport obsessed with numbers, his ODI exploits gave number-crunchers serious work. He wasn’t just the fastest to 2000 ODI runs but also the fastest man to reach 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 runs.
Whether it was the pace of Johnson, the slingers from Malinga, the yorkers of Bumrah or the twirls of Nathan Lyon, Hashim Amla soldiered on for South Africa, batting with serenity, minus any fuss.
A batsman who went about collecting with runs with great purpose, Amla beautified the sport at the same time through rasp cuts, gentle drives with a special whiff of elegance as seen from the mid-wicket to the mid-on region that combined the diligence of Cook and the grace of VVS Laxman.
But that said, Amla should also be recognized for embodying the dauntless Protean character, something we’ve come to admire in a generation of match-winners: Donald to Klusener, Kallis to Smith, Faf to AB.
He was the paratrooper to Kallis’ Field Marshal, the sprinter to AB’s jet-skier and the marathon runner- remember the 311- who could also excel playing blockathons.
And therefore, his retirement also beckons a prolonged sense of mourning that at a time South African cricket is vigorously rebuilding himself, the big names all back in the hut, a team minus the passion of Tahir, the vigor of Dale Steyn and the panache of De Villiers, a fatherly figure too, has joined his mates in the balcony.
And let’s hope, together, the big four of South Africa witness an enthralling period of rebuilding with the classy Faf du Plessis at the helm.