A cricketer with a stop-start career is not that often seen to gain momentum this late in life. However, the South African all-rounder Senuran Muthusamy is slowly but surely turning the limited opportunities he has been given into performances good enough to get the selectors of his nation to take notice.
It was a long slow journey from his debut in October 2019 to an almost six-year wait till he got to be seen as a valuable member of South Africa’s Test team. From a newcomer to a team that had just been crowned World Test Champions, Senuran Muthusamy took full advantage of his comeback, and that too in the hard away tours of Pakistan and India.
We shall now evaluate how his late surge, bowling maturity, and beneficial contributions down the order have increased his worth in the Test team.
From fringe pick to consistent Test contributor:
Senuran Muthusamy made his Test debut in October 2019 during an away match against India in Vizag. The outcome was disastrous; he was beaten and battered and ended up taking just two wickets in two games at a very high bowling average of 90. Then he had to wait almost three and a half years for another Test match, but this time against the West Indies in Centurion in January 2023 he could not even pick up one wicket.
He struggled with his batting during this period too, getting less than 100 runs in six innings at a batting average of 26.25. Over 20 months later on his Test return, Senuran Muthusamy scored his first-ever Test fifty and took five wickets in total during the Chattogram Test in Bangladesh showing little glimmers of his real all-round skill.
Just after South Africa succeeded in the WTC 2025 title match against Australia, Senuran Muthusamy was seen as a constant member of the South Africa team, as he was going along with the national team on their three consecutive tours to Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and India.
During the two-Test series in Pakistan, Muthusamy won the ‘Player of the Series’ award by taking a total of 11 wickets in the first match and by making a hard-fought match-winning 89 runs in the second.
His next trip to India in November 2025, where he scored his first Test century at the age of 31, marked the completion of a chapter in his cricket career that was left unresolved when he first arrived on Indian soil over six years ago.
A brilliant mature spin option for Tests
Senuran Muthusamy has not only been a part of the South African Test lineup but he also further bolstered their spin resources, especially during the subcontinental tours.
The spinner got his debut test in India back in late 2019 but couldn’t make an impact. The bowler, however, came back with a bang nearly six years later, this time in Pakistan.
In the first Test of the series, he managed to get rid of the batsmen a total of six times and 5 times across both innings in Lahore thus making a wonderful match haul of 11-174 in the course of the match.
Muthusamy was there in the playing XI when the South African team went to Bangladesh and he also managed to take a four-wicket haul that helped win the match. Later in November 2025, he got selected for the series-deciding second Test in Guwahati, India, where he played alongside spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer.
Inserts batting depth that makes South Africa’s balance even stronger
Senuran Muthusamy’s skill of building up stubborn lower-order alliances has also made him a powerful batting asset for South Africa. The player has scored three fifties and one of them was a series-saving 89* against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in October 2025, all in away matches.
Muthusamy repeated it with a magnificent century in his very next innings, which was against the likes of Bumrah, Siraj, Sundar and the experienced spinners Yadav and Jadeja during his India tour in Guwahati.
With South Africa turning into a team that prioritizes depth and versatility on overseas pitches, Muthusamy’s contribution brings the kind of dependability that is hard to ignore. He might have taken longer than others to travel, but his current performances indicate that he is the one who is here to stay, not just to fill a spot.