Should wily, in-form Dane Paterson be the Proteas' wildcard in England?

The Proteas' solid position on the ICC World Test Championship table brings with it some interesting considerations to make.

While there's a distinct sense that head coach Mark Boucher and his leaders, Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma, are steadily moulding a decent red-ball outfit, the national team's surge up the log raises the question of whether there might be a case to be made for temporarily abandoning longer-term planning and focusing on short-term series success.

If that were to be the thinking, the Proteas could do a lot worse than picking a quintessential wild card in Dane Paterson.

The 33-year-old seamer, who would've been (in hindsight) one of South Africa's last Kolpak players before Covid-19 struck back in 2020, has been an outstanding presence for his English county Nottinghamshire after, belatedly, being signed as an overseas player last year.

His maiden campaign on the English circuit culminated in a brilliant haul of 54 wickets at an average of just 17.98.

Just a few months later, Paterson is back at Trent Bridge and already boasts a haul of 18 wickets at 16.22, which includes a 10-wicket haul against Worcestershire this past weekend.

Eye-catchingly, he also took career-best figures of 8/52 in that match's first innings.

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Paterson, known more for his reliability and consistency than full bag of tricks, played two Tests for the Proteas against selfsame England in early 2020, Boucher's first series as national coach.

Yet there's compelling evidence that his time in the wilderness after that difficult assignment for the South Africans has been spent simply