If you're a Quinton de Kock or a Lhuan-dre Pretorius fan, you've no doubt seen the photograph on social media. It was taken at JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom some years ago, and it features two small boys and De Kock.

The latter, casually dressed in shorts and T-shirt, is a significantly younger man. His face is open and fresh. It's before BLM and the SJN, before Covid, before De Kock no longer wanted to be part of South Africa's teams. Before he decided he wanted to come back.

His left arm is draped, in older brotherly fashion, around the shoulders of one of the children. The top of the boy's head is at the height of De Kock's chest. That boy, smiling shyly, unsure of what to do with his hands, is Pretorius. Under De Kock's other arm is Pretorius' younger brother, Vihan, who played for South Africa's under-19 team this year.

It's a quintessentially South African summer scene. The three are standing outside the ground's indoor school. Behind them is a red-brick wall. Below them is a concrete verandah. Their feet aren't visible, but it is entirely likely that none of the three have bothered to wear shoes.

Another photograph, taken a few years later in what seems to be a hotel breakfast room, shows Lhuan-dre not far off De Kock's height of 1.7 metres. De Kock is in training gear. Lhuan-dre is in a yellow South Africa shirt. Vihan is sandwiched between them, beaming brightly. The look on De Kock's face is of someone happy to be reunited with people he likes.

If you haven't guessed by now, De Kock is Pretorius' all-time, unshakeable, bulletproof cricket hero. They both bat left-handed. They both hit the ball with uncommon violence. They both keep wicket. They both wear ridiculous moustaches. And they both play for South Africa.

On October 11 in Windhoek, De Kock walked out to open the batting in a T20I against Namibia - his first game for South Africa in 469 days. He was accompanied by a sturdy man slightly taller than him and more than 13 years his junior: Lhuan-dre Pretorius. De Kock flapped at the last ball of the first over and blooped a catch to square leg.

De Kock and Pretorius were next in the XI together for the third T20I against Pakistan in Lahore on Saturday. This time Reeza Hendricks was De Kock's opening partner. De Kock dragged the second ball of the match onto his stumps. He was soon joined in the dressingroom by Pretorius - who replaced him at the crease and flicked the first delivery he faced into short fine leg's hands.

Onto Faisalabad on Tuesday for the first ODI, and the De Kock-Pretorius bromance bloomed. This time they spent 67 minutes in the middle together as the visitors' opening pair. Their stand reached 98 off 96 before Pretorius lashed out at a sharply zagging delivery from Saim Ayub and sent the ball looping behind point, where Mohammad Nawaz dived to take a fine catch. Pretorius hit seven fours and a six in his 60-ball 57, a solid ODI debut.

De Kock, playing his 156th ODI but his first in 719 days, or a year, 11 months and 19 days, batted on for another 9.4 overs before he played on to Naseem Shah. His 63 came off 71 balls and was studded with six fours and two sixes. Having scored 31 runs in the previous three innings of his second coming, Tuesday's effort was easily the most convincing of this second chapter.

The De Kock-Pretorius partnership was worth more than twice as much as any other South African stand. After both had been dismissed the visitors lost eight wickets for 116 runs. Without their collaboration South Africa wouldn't have come anywhere near their total of 263.

Saim told a television interviewer between innings: "We could have restricted them to 10 to 15 fewer runs, but at one point they looked like they would reach 300." During the De Kock-Pretorius stand, he didn't have to say.

Pakistan won regardless, by two wickets with two balls to spare thanks largely to half-centuries by Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Agha, and despite Lungi Ngidi, Lizaad Williams, Donovan Ferreira, Corbin Bosch and Bjorn Fortuin all going for less than a run a ball. Such is the game.

At its core cricket is about relationships - between batting pairs, bowling pairs, captains and their bowlers, spin twins, pace partners, coaches and players, physios and the sick, lame and lazy. And between generations.

If Pretorius' youthful enthusiasm and hero worship can help South Africa get a few more years out of De Kock, why not. If the awe in which Pretorius holds De Kock lasts, that's no bad thing.

Which is not to say they are chips off the same block, more than 13 years apart. Pretorius is a teetotalling non-smoker. De Kock, not so much. If a photograph pops up on social media of them having a beer together, we'll know that's changed. But shoes will still be optional.