Early career (1995–2001)

Ashwell Prince made his first-class debut on 27 October 1995, playing for Eastern Province B against Griqualand West B in the UCB Bowl. Two matches later, on 1 December, he played his first match for the full Eastern Province team. Opening the batting with Philip Amm, Prince was dismissed leg before wicket by fast bowler Roger Telemachus without scoring in each innings. Recounting the incident 14 years later, Prince remembered the match as his first-class debut.

Prince moved from Eastern Province to Western Province in the mid-1990s under the instruction of Duncan Fletcher who saw potential in him. Ashwell played two seasons for English cricket team Morecambe Cricket Club in his earlier career. Western Province won the 2000–01 SuperSport Series. After scoring 539 runs in the competition, Prince was named the club's player of the season. During the South African winter, Prince underwent an operation on his shoulder. His first match after the procedure was in February 2002 for South Africa A against the touring Australians.

International breakthrough

Prince made his Test debut in February 2002, against Australia at the Wanderers. His inclusion in the side was partly due to the quota system in South Africa. He however justified his spot in the side by making 49 and top scoring. In the third Test at Durban he narrowly missed out on a half century again but his 48 was influential in his sides victory.

In 2002–03 he struggled in series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and was dropped from the team. With good form in domestic cricket he came back into the side in 2004–05 and played two Tests against the Zimbabweans. In the second match he made his maiden Test hundred, finishing unbeaten on 139. This was enough to get him a ticket on the plane over to the West Indies and in the fourth Test at Antigua he made 131 and set a South African 5th wicket record partnership of 267 with Jacques Kallis.

The South Africans travelled to Australia the following summer and then met up again on home soil. Throughout both legs of the series Prince had trouble facing up against Shane Warne, being dismissed by him seven times in the six Test matches. Along with his debut series which was played against Australia Prince had fallen victim to Warne a total of eleven times. Despite this he still managed a couple of good innings. The first came in the third T