Bob Willis hails Jacques Kallis as he nears a milestone in the three-Test series against Australia.
Aussies misjudge Proteas at their peril, says Bob
Australia's long lead-up to this summer's Ashes defence continues in Johannesburg this week and Ricky Ponting's side must be going into South Africa's backyard with a fair amount of trepidation.
The Australians will have learnt a lot about the Proteas' resilience during their 2-1 Test series defeat at the turn of the year when the performances of Hashim Amla and JP Duminy in particular seemed to take them completely by surprise.
Graeme Smith has a competent, high-powered bowling attack at his disposal and his team now has the top of the ICC's Test rankings in its sights; now is not the time for Australia to underestimate their opponents.
No-one deserves the Australians' respect more than Jacques Kallis, who will need just 12 when he walks to the wicket to become only the eighth batsman to rack up 10,000 Test runs.
I never think Kallis gets the credit he deserves, not least because Smith is still asking him to bowl a fair amount of overs.
We say Andrew Flintoff's an indispensable member of England's team but compare Kallis' record with bat and ball (9,988 runs at 54.57, 252 wickets at 31) to Flintoff's (3,645 runs at 31.69 and 218 wickets at 32) and there is only winner.
Kallis has been short of runs recently but he will come back to form; this is a milestone he thoroughly deserves; I'm sure he'll have his eye on getting up towards 12,000 runs.
South Africa have had some tough series recently, Bangladesh aside, having drawn in India and beaten both England and Australia. You can't underestimate their pedigree and since Shaun Pollock retired Kallis has stepped up and become the main player for them.
I can see Smith's side winning this series by a single Test which will leave Australia with something of an inferiority complex going into the Ashes.
Safe
Defeat will, of course, intensify the pressure on Ponting but I can't see him being sacked as captain before the summer.
The Australian way - unlike the English - is to ditch a player once he's lost the captaincy but Ponting is still clearly one of the leading batsmen in the world so I think his position is safe until after the Ashes should Australia lose.
He's now finding out what it's like to skipper a moderate bowling attack - one that let him down badly in the home series against South Africa.
Whether you are Don Bradman, Clive Lloyd or Mike Brearley you are only as good a captain as the bowlers you have at your disposal.
Emerging
I'm sure that the Australian selectors are rather keeping their fingers crossed that one or two of the emerging players - Ben Hilfenhaus, Marcus North and Bryce McGain - will flourish because the bowling really did look threadbare at times during the home series.
Australia are going to have to hope that Mitchell Johnson can be the mainstay of the attack and the others develop around him.
One player I'll be keeping a close eye on in particular is opener Phil Hughes, who has surprised many by leapfrogging above other guys who have had international experience.
The last generation of Australian players - the likes of Justin Langer and Michael Hussey - did a very long apprenticeship before they got a chance in the side.
That isn't the case with this new broom that has swept through Aussie cricket and it remains to be seen what the tourists can make of a clean slate.
