South Africa aim to reverse recent form against Canada
South Africa would need to raise their recent form to challenge for the title as they open their T20 World Cup campaign against Canada, a team short on match practice but looking to make a strong impression, here on Monday. South Africa have only managed to win 12 out of the 32 games they have played since losing the 2024 T20 World Cup final to India in June 2024.
However, they now do have the emboldened belief of winning a world title, having ended the trophy drought with the World Test Championships triumph last year. Ryan Rickleton and Tristian Stubbs were not part of the original squad but have rightfully included following injuries to Donavan Ferreria and Tony de Zorzi.
Keshav Maharaj will lead the spin attack while the performance of pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada will be critical as ever on the batting friendly pitches in India and Sri Lanka. Quinton de Kock and Dewald Brevis will be the players to watch out for in the batting department. South African Aiden Markram said his team is not carrying the baggage of the previous edition where it went down against India after controlling the majority of the run chase in Barbados.
“Yeah, look, the previous World Cup is what it is, right? It’s two years ago. It’s done now. We’ve played a lot of cricket since. You have to earn that right (of being a title contender) in your group stage first, and then continuously play good cricket. “It’s a competition in a format where any team can beat any team. It takes one or two special performances from individuals, and it breaks the game open. So obviously, we are here to win. We’re motivated to win, especially after 2024. But yeah, that’s not the sole reason for our motivation,” said Markram.
Canada, on the other hand, have not played much high quality cricket in the last four months. They would be playing their second successive T20 World Cup with 23-year-old Dilpreet Bajwa taking over captaincy from Nicholas Kirton. They went unbeaten through this cycle’s qualification, winning all six of their Americas Regional contests, including the final. “It’s a very proud moment for all our players. Most of our players are from India. And as you told, condition, I think it’s pretty hard in Canada, and thanks to our board, they had our pre-tour in Sri Lanka and we prepared well.
“And we had a couple of games where we checked our combination and everything. And I feel as a captain, we are well-prepared, but it’s a day game. Whoever day it will, it will happen,” said Bajwa. In Colombo, Zimabwe open campaign against Oman: Zimbabwe have a point to prove having missed the last edition of the tournament. While there are plenty of familiar faces with skipper Sikandar Raza and wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor, it is the youngest player in the squad who played a big part in seeing Zimbabwe through the African Qualifier.
Brian Bennett is just 22, but was in the form of his life on home soil as he scored three half-centuries and a hundred to clinch Zimbabwe’s place. He followed that up with some good knocks in a tri-series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in November and may hold the key to Zimbabwe springing a surprise this time around. Zimbabwe upset eventual finalists Pakistan four years ago and will be targeting a quick start against Oman before they take on group favourites Australia in their second fixture.
Oman will making their fourth appearance in the T20 showpiece. On two of their three previous appearances, Oman have secured a win at the tournament, including beating Ireland in their very first game back in 2016 on debut. Jatinder Singh will captain the side and open the batting, and will receive plenty of support from vice-captain and wicketkeeper Vinayak Shukla. Oman’s strength is their bowling, with Jiten Ramanandi, Sufyan Mehmood and Nadeem Khan having all enjoyed plenty of success in the Qualifier.
The Squads:
Canada: Dilpreet Bajwa (c), Ajayveer Hundal, Ansh Patel, Dilon Heyliger, Harsh Thaker, Jaskarandeep Singh, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Ravinderpal Singh, Saad Bin Zafar, Shivam Sharma, Shreyas Movva, Yuvraj Samra.
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Marco Jansen, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Jason Smith, Tristan Stubbs.
