Despite expecting conditions in India to be very different for the World Cup than they were when the Proteas played there last month, Aiden Markram’s squad for the tournament still leans heavily on pace, while the spin options are very limited. Selection convenor Patrick Moroney mentioned on Friday that the South African brains trust don’t believe that the seaming conditions seen during that five-match series will be replicated for the T20 World Cup which will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka. For one, South Africa played most of the matches in the northern regions of India, where cold winter temperatures aided the seamers.
February will be warmer and the Proteas will play the majority of their group matches in Ahmedabad, in the west. 🚨 SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨The South African Men’s selection panel has announced the 15-player squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, to be held in India and Sri Lanka from 07 February – 08 March.T20 International (T20I) captain Aiden Markram will lead the side, which…pic.twitter.com/EqZvYPpCga There are six fast bowlers in the 15-man squad, led by Kagiso Rabada who missed the India tour with a rib injury and has just started bowling again for his SA20 franchise MI Cape Town. In contrast to the seam bowling options, South Africa’s spin bowling looks thin.
Where India has four front-line spin bowlers in its squad, South Africa will take only Keshav Maharaj and George Linde. Those two, according to Moroney, will do “the bulk of the work”. Markram and Donovan Ferreira, both part-time off-spinners, will do the rest.
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The lack of versatility is concerning. Nqaba Peter, the 24-year-old wrist-spinner hasn’t developed as quickly as hoped and likely needs more domestic playing time, especially at first-class level where he will have the chance to bowl more overs and build on his skill. Jason smith is surely a dark horse.
He could be the game changer for South Africapic.twitter.com/i7ihs2y8bc Tabraiz Shamsi long ago was dismissed as an option by Shukri Conrad leaving Prenelan Subrayen and Senuran Muthusamy as the only other spin contenders. From a T20 context, Muthusamy provides nothing different to Maharaj and Linde and Subrayen’s off-spin hasn’t been considered. The squad is an experienced one.
Markram and Quinton de Kock are old heads at the top of the order, David Miller in the middle, along with Maharaj and Rabada will be the squad’s spine. Naturally there were some tricky decisions. South Africa have loads of options with the bat so there were always going to be some unfortunate individuals.
Ryan Rickelton lost out to De Kock and Tristan Stubbs to Ferreira, Miller, Jason Smith and Dewald Brevis. Smith and Tony de Zorzi are the two biggest surprises. De Zorzi, who is still completing rehab after injuring his right hamstring against India, will bat at No.3 according to Moroney and gets his spot because of the expectation that there will be less seam movement and that spin is likely to play a bigger role — even though with the ball, the Proteas have such few options.
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