South Africa named Anrich Nortje in the ICC Twenty20 squad. Nortje returns to international action after a nine-month injury layoff.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Pacer Anrich Nortje will return to international action after a nine-month injury layoff while the uncapped duo of Ryan Rickelton and Ottniel Baartman was included in South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad on April 30.

Aiden Markram will lead the side in what will be his first World Cup assignment since being named T20I captain.

Also read: India’s 2024 T20 World Cup squad announced

Wicketkeeper-batter Rickelton and pacer Baartman have been rewarded for their stellar run in this year’s SA20.

Rickelton finished as the leading run-scorer in the second edition of SA20 with 530 runs at an average of 58.88 for MI Cape Town, while Baartman took 18 wickets in eight matches for defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape and is currently with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals.

The team will also benefit from the expertise of batters Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and the promising Tristan Stubbs, who is in sensational form.

Leading the pace attack will be Kagiso Rabada and Nortje, who has been out of Proteas action since September 2023 after suffering a back injury. He is currently playing for DC in the IPL.

The duo will be supported by Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee at the marquee event to be held in the Americas from June.

Other notable selections include three front-line spinners in CSA T20 Challenge, winning captain Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi.

Pace pair Nandre Burger and Lungi Ngidi have been named as the travelling reserves.

“Selecting this group was extremely tough considering the amount of T20 cricket that has been played recently and the form that has been on show. I want to congratulate the two uncapped players, Ryan and Ottniel, on their selection,” white-ball coach Rob Walter said.

“We have seen some incredible performances from our players in 2024 and that made my job very tough indeed,” he added.

Several IPL stars to miss T20 series in WI ahead of WC

Walter has also named a provisional squad for the preceding three-match T20I series against West Indies. This group will change and have players added to it when the management is aware of IPL players’ availability.

The provisional squad will assemble for a week-long camp from May 13 to 17 at the Centre of Excellence in Pretoria, with the final squad set to be announced prior to their departure on May 1.

“Our preparations for the tournament will start with a three-match T20I series against West Indies. For this tour, we will unfortunately be without most of the players who are currently involved in the IPL,” Walter added.

“But it does provide an opportunity for others, especially those who excelled in the CSA T20 Challenge. A captain for the group will be finalised closer to the time.”

South Africa T20 World Cup squad:

Aiden Markram (captain), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs.

Travelling reserves: Nandre Burger and Lungi Ngidi.

Delhi Capitals bowler Anrich Nortje celebrates with captain Rishabh Pant during the Indian Premier League 2024 match against Rajasthan Royals on March 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Delhi Capitals bowling coach James Hopes feels that the team’s under-fire pace spearhead Anrich Nortje will get better with time having recently made a comeback to competitive cricket after six months.

Nortje was taken to the cleaners by Rajasthan Royals’ Riyan Parag at the death as he went for 48 in his four overs on March 28.

Rajasthan Royals won the IPL match by 12 runs while defending 185 for 5.

Nortje had been out of cricket since September and came into IPL having played just three domestic T20 games earlier this month and failed to nail the yorkers or bowl the hard lengths that he is known for.

“I won’t say too much bad about the bowlers. They just tried to execute. It was a good first half with the ball but got away from us a little bit in the last five years,” Hopes said after his team’s 12-run loss to RR, where the complexion changed during the last part of their bowling innings.

“It’s the first time that Nortje has been at this level in a while. He had a fair time out of the game, but if you look at all the numbers, he is one of the premier death bowlers in the game. We trust that he is going to keep getting better,” Hopes, a former Australia medium pacer said defending the Proteas pacer.

Hopes also felt that just like bowling, the team’s batting also came apart in the back-10 after a positive start.

“With the bat, we started really well, we were in front of the game, and then fell away a little bit in the middle. They bowled 10 overs of death bowling pretty much at us, and executed it well.”

Hopes assessed that the end game is a problem in both departments after the first two defeats.

“We need to tidy at what we do at the end of the game. It’s one game, I don’t even count the first game because we had to take a bowler out to get an extra batter in and then Ishant (Sharma) went down, so I’m not going to judge us too harshly on one game.” The batting in the middle overs will largely depend on how comeback man Rishabh Pant fares.

“We need to tidy up our middle over batting too. We tend to get stuck a little bit in phases there. We know the fix for that is Rishabh Pant,” Hopes said.

“He has played two games after a long lay-off and I think you’re going to see some pretty special things from him in the next few weeks,” he concluded.

Delhi Capitals will take on Chennai Super Kings in their next game at the ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on March 31.