Kaplan makes music at the crease

Gavin Kaplan, the Boland and South Africa A batsman, describes his batting in musical terms. He talks of “rhythm” and “being in tune” with his game. 

The words are useful because batting at its most fluent is akin to making music. You hit the ball sweetly, you and your bat are one. It’s not much different to playing a melody or playing your part in the orchestra. After hours and hours of numbing practice, everything unfolds with mellow, liberatingly thoughtless ease. 

Like a musician who intuitively knows they’re playing faultlessly, you bat in a bubble. Everyone has their way to describe this, but it basically amounts to the same thing. You are, as the professionals say, “in the zone”. 

Kaplan was so in the zone for Boland in the 2025/2026 domestic first-class season that he scored 903 runs for them, including four – sometimes double – hundreds. With international cricket the thing nowadays, domestic cricket doesn’t get the attention it deserves, but there was a time when 903 domestic runs would have led to back-page headlines. Scoring that many runs in a season puts Kaplan in elite company. He’s suddenly rubbing shoulders with the Peter Kirstens, Barry Richardses, and Graeme Pollocks of this world. 

Somebody out there noticed the 903 runs last season because at the beginning of August, Kaplan received a message from Patrick Moroney, convenor of Cricket South Africa selectors. Moroney explained that Kaplan had been chosen to represent the South Africa A team against Bangladesh A in two unofficial Tests later that month and offered his congratulations. For the talented kid who once couldn’t get a regular game for Western Province and so had to move to neighbours Boland, playing for the Proteas was suddenly a step closer. 

Kaplan batted only once in the first Test at Tukkies in Pretoria, scoring 38 before being run out through a misunderstanding. Run-outs are galling forms of dismissal: everyone’s to blame and everyone’s blameless, and Kaplan was determined to do better the second time round. On Monday, he scored 97 in South Africa A’s first innings in the second Test in Potch. 

On the other hand, runs aren’t everything, although it sometimes appears that way. Kaplan has now had a taste of the big time. And he likes what he sees. 

“I’ve loved my time with South Africa A, to be honest,” he says. “The environment has been amazing. You know the guys because you play against them, but in this situation, you get to know them a little bit better. It’s really been a great experience, whether we’re talking cricket or discussing where to watch the [Springboks’ play] rugby.” 

Kaplan doesn’t use only the words of music to talk about being in flow; he talks about being calm at the crease. Time was, he thinks now, when he put a little bit too much pressure on himself to succeed. His mind is emptier now. He finds it helps. 

“I’m in tune with rotating the strike now, and in tune with my game,” he says. “I don’t have too many technical thoughts. You can find yourself down a bit of a rabbit hole in a game like cricket if you think too technically. Beyond the fundamentals you’ve just got to go out and find a way to score runs without putting too much pressure on yourself with a ‘run-scoring’ mindset, if that makes sense?” 

Kaplan’s opening game of the four-day season with Boland happens against the Lions at the Wanderers next week, so the run-scoring might be temporarily halted. The Bull Ring isn’t somewhere he’s done particularly well in the past, he says with a laugh. Perhaps things will change for the better this time? 

“I know my game better now,” he says. “At the Wanderers you’ve just got to be smarter with your plans and nullify the risks the environment provides. A back-foot punch at Paarl might be a safe shot because of Paarl’s lack of bounce. That’s not true for the Wanderers, which is a bouncier deck, so you just have to adjust things and find ways to score safely.” 

It’s going to be a busy summer of cricket, what with some expanded domestic competitions and in-bound Test tours by both Australia and England, who tour over Christmas and the New Year. England’s second side, the England Lions, will also be touring Mzansi, which could provide Kaplan with another opportunity to showcase his talent and put himself in the shop window for bigger things. 

After a couple of four-day games for his province, Boland, the auction for the 2027 SA20 comes up in early October. Kaplan would dearly love to be involved in the SA20. 

“Red ball cricket can help white ball cricket and vice versa,” he says. “To be honest I don’t see myself as exclusively a red ball cricketer.” 

It’s a good attitude to have but, then again, Kaplan’s attitude – relaxed without being laid back – is in part what’s taken him so far. He knows himself; he knows his game; he knows that as long as he continues to make music, things will only get better.