Batsman Theunis de Bruyn is determined to improve after losing a contract with Cricket South Africa.

De Bruyn was not on the list of contracted players announced last month and made only five appearances for the Titans during the 2019-20 season. He battled poor form, illness and injury throughout – and didn’t play any professional cricket in February.

March brought one One-Day Cup appearance against the Knights in Centurion, before the season ended early as a preventative measure against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

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‘It was just one of those seasons and I have no answers to the questions why? But we need to put the situation in perspective with what is currently going on: we can’t even play cricket now, businesses are closing and it’s a crazy time. We can only hope this pandemic unites the nation and then we can stand up and rebuild. So, we need to take all that on board for perspective,’ De Bruyn told the Citizen.

‘But this last season was completely not what I expected, not what I put in all the hard work towards. The current situation is a bit like my season, all questions and no answers. I’ve hardly played this season, it feels like the season never really started for me. I feel a bit forgotten but I just have to take it on the chin because I failed in international cricket.

‘I believe I still have a role to play in South African cricket; I still have eight to 10 years left in my career so there’s still a lot of time. I’m just going to take all the lessons I can from this season. In the few innings I had, I actually felt good and what I have been working on was coming through.’

The 27-year-old De Bruyn has played a dozen Tests since debuting in 2017. He averages 19.45 after 23 innings.

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