The South African media has drawn parallels between the plights of AB de Villiers and Michael Clarke, whom they have touted as two of the most premier, exhilarating international batsmen on the planet.
According to Sport24, both men are leading an embattled national cause and fighting in different formats of the game, with Clarke's men being 2-0 down in the five-Test Ashes series, while De Villiers' side are facing similar problems in Sri Lanka in a five-game ODI series.
The report said that also in common for right-handed stroke-players Clarke and De Villiers is the heavy, dangerous current dependency on each man to deliver the goods personally right now, despite the additional burden of captaincy in ailing causes.
In each instance, a lot of people have no doubt inclined to suspect that humiliating, 5-0 clean sweeps cannot completely be ruled out, the report added.