Senuran Muthusamy has one trait those who love and have coached him agree on.
“He’s been very patient, which has been very important. The fact that he hadn’t been contracted by the national team until [this year] didn’t deter him from what he wanted to achieve. For me that’s one of Sen’s most admirable characteristics,” his mother Vani Moodley told the Sunday Times in a recent interview.
That hallmark set Muthusamy above his Proteas teammates in Guwahati, where needing to ensure a substantial first innings total while extending the time SA batted, is crucial to how they can win the second Test and with it the series against India.
Muthusamy has had to be patient throughout his career, while other spinners have been given chances at international level. These include his close mate Keshav Maharaj, Dane Piedt and, lately, Simon Harmer.
But with other strings to his bow, most notably his batting, Muthusamy has become the Proteas’ subcontinent specialist, and Sunday saw him make another notable contribution.
“I was just trying to do a job for the team, batting for partnerships and really accumulate runs. First-innings runs in the subcontinent are crucial,” he said modestly.
Muthusamy’s 109 — his first Test hundred — took one minute short of five hours to compile and required resolve in gloomy conditions on Saturday, and then again against the second new ball when he and Kyle Verreynne resumed the Proteas innings on 247/6 on Sunday.
“With Kyle, it was against the new ball, a 9am start, we expected it to be tough and the Indian bowlers really tested us. He batted really well. It was an awesome partnership to set up the innings,” Muthusamy said of his and Verreynne’s 87-run seventh wicket stand.
It was Muthusamy who set the tone. His calm nature, sturdy defence and, yes, patience rubbed off on Verreynne, who’d come into this Test having last made an impact with the bat when he scored a century in the New Year’s Test in Cape Town against Pakistan.
Verreynne made 45, and with Muthusamy ensured SA came through the first session without losing a wicket, striking a major psychological blow against an Indian side that would have hoped to wrap up the SA innings by tea.
Muthusamy relied on all the hard work that had brought him back into the Proteas side in 2025. Part of the squad that lost the 2019 series 0-3 to India, he returned to provincial cricket.
“I went back into the wilderness; cricket is such a journey. You try to take it one day at a time and not think too far ahead. There were times where, especially after 2019, I wasn’t sure I would ever play Test cricket again, especially after we lost that series,” he said.
He played in the first Test Shukri Conrad oversaw as head coach in February 2023, but didn’t play another until Bangladesh last October. He made his first Test fifty in that series and picked up five wickets in that match, playing a small but significant part in ensuring SA qualified for the final of the World Test Championship.
Then, with Maharaj missing the first Test in Pakistan, he took 11 wickets in Lahore and followed that with an unbeaten 89 in South Africa’s victory in Rawalpindi.
In keeping with how his Test career has unfolded, he wasn’t picked for the first Test in Kolkata, which was played on a spin-friendly surface. “I didn’t have any problem with that. We won the game, I was overjoyed,” he said.
Instead, he focused on being ready for Guwahati, and while on Sunday, success came with the bat, he knows that over the remaining days his bowling may be as important.
“I see myself as an all-rounder and try to contribute where I can,” he said.
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