Brevis starred for South Africa in the Under-19 Cricket World Cup this year, and made his debut in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
The 19-year-old had scored the highest individual score in domestic T20 in domestic T20 at the CSA T20 Challenge last month. Playing for the Titans, Brevis scored 163 off 57 balls (13 fours and 13 sixes) against the Knights at Potchefstroom.
Brevis’ century came off just 35 balls, the fastest domestic T20 century ever. Brevis eventually finished as the second-highest run-scorer in CSA’s T20 Challenge, as he scored 327 runs in his nine matches for the Titans. After his brilliant form for the Titans, many were speculating when the teenager would make his Debut in South Africa.
However, Brevis is yet to make his first-class debut for the Titans as the CSA 4-day franchise series is currently underway. Gibbs, who has played 90 Tests, 248 ODIs and 23 T20 Internationals for South Africa, said Brevis needs to improve his game and get the much-needed progress from four-day cricket.
“He’s in T20 form and a fantastic talent,” Herschelle Gibbs said. “I think I speak on behalf of a lot of batsmen who have come on to the field a little earlier than the rest of the batsmen,” Gibbs said at the Gary & Vivian Player Invitational last week.
“From a batting point of view, you can’t move forward in T20 cricket because you can only do anything in 30 or 50 balls.
“There is a lot of emotions, not just technical ability, temperament. They still need to go through it and time will tell. Herschelle Gibbs admitted he never spoke to Brevis but hoped the youngster doesn’t trust his T20 credentials too much.
“We should talk about them in two or three years. See where he is and where his mind and mindset is… What are their goals, etc…” Gibbs said.
“I’ve never spoken to him, so I don’t know what his goals are. Does he want to score 30 Test hundreds? Does he want to score 30 centuries in ODIs, whatever it is?
“What we have seen from him is his T20 form because that’s what he has to show right now. Imagine a cricketer is so young and you have to face only 30 or 40 balls in every match. Gibbs used Australian batsman David Warner as an example and urged Brevis to wear the white jersey and become a complete batsman.