Proteas coach Shukri Conrad has in the past shown there is method to his selection madness.. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Shukri Conrad, it’s that it’s usually a bad idea to bet against him. Just over a year ago, people were just as sceptical when he put together a Test squad that many labelled “risky” or “inexperienced”.
At the time, we were rebuilding and most of the world had written us off as outsiders. Conrad didn’t care. He backed players others had doubted, ignored the noise, and stuck to his guns when the pressure was on.
The result? South Africa holding the World Test Championship mace in 2025, easily one of the greatest moments in our sporting history. The parallels with this T20 World Cup squad are hard to miss.
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Conrad has never been one to pick players just because they have a big reputation or because the public is screaming for them. He cares about three things: role clarity, temperament, and whether a player actually fits the conditions they’re about to face. In the Test arena, that meant picking guys with “dog” in them, players with solid domestic records and the mental toughness to grind. He’s applying that exact same logic to the T20 side.
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