There aren’t too many arguments going around against South Africa having the best top-six in the world. The maverick Quinton de Kock, the stable Temba Bavuma, the conventional No. 3 Rassie van der Dussen, and then the dynamic powerhouse trio of Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.

It is what follows that comes up as a point of concern for anyone previewing South Africa’s chances in this World Cup. The argument is that Marco Jansen is batting one spot too high at No. 7, which can kind of prevent you from being at your attacking single-minded best as a batter. Just the thought that those behind you can bat can free up the mind.

The absence of batting behind you can make you cagey although that didn’t show in the hammering they consigned Sri Lanka to. Still, at the ICC mixed media zone, it was put to van der Dussen if it bothers him that he is doing well but Jansen is the No. 7. If that kind of tempers his intent and his ambition.

“Yes, maybe they are untested, but Marco, who is almost a batter in his own right, and Gerald’s standing here. If you talk about six-hitting, hopefully you’ll see that soon. And then… we know what KG [Rabada] and Kesh [Keshav Maharaj] can do as well down the order.”

Minutes later, Gerald Coetzee turned up, and the first thing to ask him was if he fancied himself at six-hitting as much as van der Dussen did. “I do, absolutely,” Coetzee said. “I didn’t get a chance today. And if you look at my batting average, it says I average one, so I haven’t hit sixes, but in T20s, I’ve hit a few and I’ve done well in domestic cricket, so hopefully I get a chance and I can show it.”

So fancy it enough to spend extra time in the nets working on his batting? “Yeah, no, I definitely want to be a bowling allrounder,” Coetzee said. “If you look at someone like Chris Morris, what value he added, I think there’s a massive gap in the market for that.”

In the 160 balls that Coetzee has faced as a lower-order batter in T20s, he has hit 12 sixes and 11 fours. He is putting in the range-hitting work too. A boundary every eight balls or so is not Chris Morris-level yet, but that is a good aspiration to have for a young allrounder.

Having said all that, as the fireworks in Delhi attested, Jansen and Coetzee at Nos. 7 and 8 inspire enough confidence in the top six to not hold back thinking of a long tail to follow.