Kyle Verreynne's mission to make the difficult doable

Scholesy doesn't support Manchester United. Maybe he does. Or did. It's complicated. Seems simple, surely. Is he a Man United fan or not?

"I was," Kyle Verreynne told Cricbuzz. "But since the start of my time in Nottingham, people have slowly converted me to a [Nottingham] Forest man. I'm sort of inbetween the two at the moment. Although both aren't playing very well, so it's not very good."

Verreynne has been called Scholesy since his earliest days as a first-class player because he looks like Paul Scholes, the former Manchester United midfielder. Not the least of the resemblance is in the fact that both are red-headed.

"I think it happened on my first tour with the Cobras [in September 2017]. Ashy P [Ashwell Prince, the coach] and Dane Piedt [the captain] gave it to me."

That Verreynne is unsure which English Premier League team he supports is striking for someone who doesn't struggle with certainty. So certain that, with one run needed to beat Australia in the WTC final at Lord's in June, he tried to ramp Mitchell Starc. It's worth saying that again: he tried to ramp Mitchell Starc. Mitchell! Starc!

Verreynne gloved the ball to Alex Carey, but he survived because the Australians had no referrals left. Two deliveries later Verreynne drove Starc through the covers as sweetly as you like to clinch South Africa's first ICC trophy in more than 26 years.

That unshakeable certainty was on show again at Trent Bridge in September, when Verreynne hammered Warwickshire's Nathan Gilchrist over mid-wicket for six to secure the batting bonus point that made Nottinghamshire county champions for the first time since 2010.

Notts had veered towards relegation last year, Verreynne's first campaign with them. They were spared largely because, in another Trent Bridge match against Warwickshire, Verreynne batted through six middle and lower order partnerships that added 305 runs to a total which had wilted to 182 for 4 when he took guard. He was 148 not out when the innings ended. His more than five hours at the crease did much to force the draw, and with it continued First Division status for his team.

Verreynne would seem to be a man for big moments. "I'd like to think so," he said. "It doesn't always work out like that, but it's definitely something that I've been quite good at doing.

"You can't plan for things like that. No matter how good a player you are you've got to be in the right place at the right time. So it can't be a conscious thing. It must just kind of happen. It's like, 'I've got to do this now. So let me get on with it.'"

You can't insert yourself into the right place at the right time, but you can make sure you're prepared if and when it happens. And preparation can be coached.

"A big message from Ashy P through my teenage years and growing into my professional career was to seek out those moments. He explains it perfectly - when you want a situation not to happen or don't want to be put in a situation, you land up in that situation.

"So instead of wanting things to not happen, try and be the guy who always wants to be there. When the pressure's on a lot of guys don't want to be there. But Ashy P instilled a different mindset - it's really tough out there, so what happens if you do the job? How cool would that be?

"It's not being arrogant or seeking the limelight. When there are things to be achieved or pressure situations need to be dealt with, I like to take that responsibility. I think it brings the best out of me, and I think it's a trait not a lot of people have. My teammates know that if the pressure's on or something needs to be done, I'll always put my hand up."

That attitude - or is it an attribute? - serves players well. Especially when they're not in their best form. Verreynne has scored four centuries, all of them consequential, in 45 Test innings. But his top score in his last eight trips to the crease is an unbeaten 42 against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in June.

South Africa's squad for the series against India that starts at the Eden Gardens on Friday includes Verreynne and Ryan Rickelton, who made a gutsy 71 in the first innings against Pakistan on a Lahore pitch that ragged from the outset last month. Verreynne is easily the better wicketkeeper of the two, but might a change be in the offing?

"When you're faced with conditions like these you want your best gloveman because you've got quality spinners," Shukri Conrad said when the squad was announced last month. "Chances get created all the time and Scholesy was excellent with the gloves in Pakistan. If you're going on batting form it wasn't that long ago that he was scoring hundreds for us.

"People have short memories sometimes. I'm always going to back our players for an extended period because they've served us really well. I want my best wicketkeeper in these conditions and that's definitely Scholesy."

Those whose memories are long enough to remember Conrad axing Verreynne in favour of Heinrich Klaasen for a home Test series in March 2023 will smile at that. Verreynne didn't smile at the time. He was South Africa's third-highest runscorer in 2022 and behind only Temba Bavuma in Australia in December 2022 and January 2023. He had played 14 Tests and seemed established in the team.

"My first real encounter with Shukri was him dropping me," Verreynne said. "We've got a good relationship now. He's very straight and to the point. You're not going to agree with coaches all the time, but I've always appreciated his honesty. And his willingness to allow guys to be who they are.

"So I break my career into two halves. In the first half I felt there was a specific style of play that I needed to conform to; a technical way I was expected to bat.

"After Shukri recalled me, I've been allowed to play my way. He trusts me to do what I do. He says, 'If you score runs and take your catches, I don't really care how you do it.'"

Was he shocked by Conrad's decision? "I was taken aback. I didn't think it was going to happen. But within half-an-hour I was going through the numbers.

"While I was one of our top two or three batters the numbers weren't great. I think I was averaging 27 or something [28.60, in fact], which meant I was doing better than most.

"But then you have an honest look and you say 27 at Test level is not good enough, whether that makes you the best in the team or not. As much as I didn't expect to be dropped I completely understand why I was dropped."

Verreynne has played 15 Tests since his return, for a home series against India in December 2023 and January 2024, long enough for some to forget the interruption.

"I haven't forgotten," Verreynne said. "I remind Shukri about it probably once a tour."

His recent endorsement by Conrad is as ringing as any player could hope to receive, and it is deserved. Verreynne scored only two and 19 in the Lahore Test, but he did not allow a single bye in 156.5 overs - more than 80% of them bowled by spinners - on an awfulness of a pitch.

Verreynne hadn't played a first-class match at the Gaddafi before. Mohammad Rizwan, who was playing his sixth first-class game and his second Test there, conceded eight. Details like that have become less important in an era when wicketkeepers are expected to be batters first, keepers second.

"I've grown up as an out-and-out batter. It's not that keeping is something I do on the side, but I don't see it as something that gets me into the team. I'd like to think I get into the team because of my batting. But I take my keeping seriously, and that does help."

Verreynne's first match of note was for Western Province's under-13 side against their Zimbabwean counterparts in Potchefstroom in December 2010. He was behind the stumps in that game, as he has been in 307 of his 380 matches. Yet he hasn't always been a keeper.

"When I was probably under 10 I was opening the batting and the bowling. Parents want their kids to get an equal opportunity, so the coach told me I couldn't do that. We needed to give other guys a chance. I asked if I could I open the batting and try keeping' Because if I was just in the field I was going to be so bored. The coach said, 'Well, no-one wants to keep. So that's fine.'"

Part of what has kept Verreynne interested in keeping all these years later are the contrasts posed by different bowlers in different conditions.

"Some guys, if I had to keep to them in Australia or South Africa, it would be a breeze. You could almost do the job with your eyes closed. But give them a Duke ball in English conditions and it's a nightmare.

"Keeping to someone like Shammo [Tabraiz Shamsi] in Australia would maybe be quite easy because you wouldn't expect a lot of turn. Even though he has a lot of variations there shouldn't be too much deviation. But then keep to them in Pakistan or India or some grounds in South Africa, where you've got to be able to pick up all their variations and it's turning sharply. That becomes a real challenge. It's more the conditions than the style of bowler that makes it difficult. But then you've got bowlers, spinners and seamers, who are just beautiful to keep to all around the world."

Did he favour particular batting conditions? "I see myself as someone who's not great technically, but more of a mental problem-solver. Someone who tries to figure out ways to go about things in different conditions.

"I don't think there's any style of pitch that I'd say I prefer batting on. There's a few that I don't. I mean, batting in the UK is impossible..."

Says someone who has scored 748 runs, with two centuries, at 46.75 in 20 first-class innings for Nottinghamshire. Who saved them from relegation and sealed their championship a year later. Who brushed off being reprieved after gloving a silly shot to hit the winning runs off one of the game's finest bowlers in the WTC final at the most English of England's grounds.

Impossible? Maybe. Like supporting, simultaneously, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest.