Steyn's bold claim gains support as Jansen plots Aussies demise

South Africa great Dale Steyn has labelled Marco Jansen as 'currently the best cricketer in the world' as the Proteas all-rounder vowed to return on the final day of the second Test to help bowl his side to victory against Australia.

Jansen has played a major role in helping South Africa to a dominant position at stumps after four days of the second ICC World Test Championship fixture against the Aussies in Gqeberha, with the tall all-rounder contributing a superb innings of 85 with the bat before collecting a five-wicket haul with the ball to leave the Proteas just six wickets away from a series-levelling victory at St George's Park.

Those efforts across the last two days saw Steyn take to social media to declare Jansen was the best cricketer in the world and one can mount a decent argument that that is the case based upon his recent exploits against the Aussies.

Steyn's claim gains further support based on the fact that India veteran Ravindra Jadeja is the only player ahead of Jansen on the current ICC Men's Test All-Rounder Rankings and the 26-year-old South Africa star admitted he was pleased to hear the kind words made by the legendary Proteas fast bowler.

"It's nice to hear those comments," Jansen said.

"But sometimes I am cuckoo in the head. I sit late at night and I think of how I want to play and how I want to be as a cricketer.

"They are deep questions and hard questions that I ask myself.

"But at the end of the day, I just want to be a player the team can lean on. Especially in hard or tough moments."

Jansen also knows he needs to back up his performance across the first four days and bowl his side to victory on Thursday to ensure South Africa claims the victory, levels the series and moves back into contention to defend the mace they won at the World Test Championship Final at Lord's last year.

While the Proteas only need six wickets on the final day to win the Test, Jansen knows he will need to stay patient with Australia opener Travis Head still at the crease unbeaten on 87* and the likes of Steve Smith and Alex Carey yet to bat.

"Test cricket is all about resilience, coupled with consistency. It's very easy to let the game leak. For us, it's just all about trying to do the right thing for as long as possible," Jansen said. 

"Resilience isn't always if your back's against the wall. Resilience can also be making good decisions and just sticking to a plan. Test cricket tests every single aspect of you so you have to have the attitude of: it doesn't matter what happens, I'm going to come back again and again and again."

Series schedule

First Test: 9-13 October, Durban  (Australia won by 214 runs)

Second Test: 18-22 October, Gqeberha

Third Test: 27-31 October, Cape Town