South Africa have now lost eight Tests in a row in Asia ©AFP
Wanderers, Newlands, Centurion, Kingsmead, St George's Park, you have a problem. It has a short name but it's big: Asia. Or, closer to the truth, winning Tests in Asia. And, no, you can't always blame the conditions.
Dean Elgar, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock are the only members of the team who lost in Karachi on Friday who were also in the XI the last time their side won in the subcontinent. The rest - Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir and Morne Morkel - no longer play international cricket.
When South Africa were last successful in Asia, Aiden Markram and Lungi Ngidi had yet to make their first-class debuts. Kagiso Rabada had four caps at that level. Almost four months earlier, Markram and Rabada were among a gaggle of excited youngsters who turned up at Newlands to show off the under-19 World Cup trophy they had won in the United Arab Emirates days earlier. They seemed more interested in looking out of the window on that shining day, where South Africa were playing a Test against Australia. "Maybe one day," you could feel them thinking, "that will be us."
It really was that long ago: July 20, 2014. Centuries by Elgar and Duminy and nine wickets for Steyn made South Africa the only non-Asian team besides Australia
