Aiden Markram will lead South Africa’s charge for the first time in an ICC event after being named the T20I skipper for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies.
Among the notable inclusions are Anrich Nortje and Quinton de Kock, who were recently excluded from Cricket South Africa’s central contract list. Nortje has been sidelined from international action since September 2023 due to a back injury, while De Kock announced his retirement from ODIs after the 2023 Cricket World Cup, having already bid farewell to Test cricket in 2022.
Ryan Rickelton and Ottniel Baartman are the two uncapped faces in the squad and have been selected on the basis of their notable performance in the recent SA20 tournament. Rickelton was the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 530 runs at an average of 58.88 and strike rate of 173.77 for MI Cape Town while Baartman took 18 wickets in eight matches for defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
The Proteas have a strong batting core in Markram, De Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and the promising Tristan Stubbs while the pace battery will be led by Kagiso Rabada and Nortje with the support of Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee. Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi will be the frontline spinners.
On Monday, New Zealand became the first team to announce their squad. The rest of the participating countries are expected to announce their squads shortly before the May 1 deadline.
South Africa squad: Aiden Markram (c), 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