While South Africa’s Test team is playing against Sri Lanka in Gqeberha, South Africa, another group of players is preparing for a T20 series against Pakistan that will start today.
Pakistan will play against South Africa. There is a three-match T20 series starting today. South Africa has just won a Delight Test match against Sri Lanka in Gqeberha, to keep themselves alive in the WTC final race. There will be no T20 World Cup in 2025. SA’s main focus is on test matches due to the WTC final. Heinrich Klaasen will lead South Africa in the T20 series against Pakistan.
Pakistan’s team recently played a T20 and an ODI series against Zimbabwe where they won both of the series. Left-hand batter Saim Ayab and spinner Sufiyan Muqeem performed well leading Pak towards win. Pakistan had rested their main players including Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afraid, and captain Muhammad Rizwan in the Zimbabwe tour. Salman Ali Agha played the role of Captaincy in that series. Before that, they were in Australia, where they lost the T20 series 3-0 but won an ODI series 2-1. Pakistan’s main focus is on white-ball cricket because they are official hosts of the Champions Trophy is just ahead over two months.
Remember, SA hasn’t won any single bilateral series in the T20 format throughout the last few series. Draw 1-1 against Ireland, whitewashed by West Indies, and in other series, they didn’t perform well. South African white-ball coach Rob Walter has called up fast bowler Anrich Nortje and left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi for the T20 series to increase their Strength. They both were part of South Africa’s T20 WorldCup team where they helped the team to reach in Final.
pak T20 Squad
- Muhammad Rizwan (Captain)
- Baber Azam
- Haris Rauf
- Jahandad Khan
- Mohammad Abbas Afridi
- Mohammad Hasnain
- Mohammad Irfan Khan
- Omair Bin Yousuf
- Saim Ayub
- Salman Ali Agha
- Shaheen Shah Afridi
- Sufyan Muqeem
- Tayyab Tahir
- Usman Khan
- Abrar Ahmed
SA T20 Squad
- Heinrich Klaasen (captain)
- Ottneil Baartman
- Matthew Breetzke
- David Miller
- Anrich Nortje
- Nqaba Peter
- Ryan Rickelton
- Tabraiz Shamsi
- Andile Simelane
- Rassie van der Dussen
- Kwena Maphaka
- George Linde
- Patrick Kruger
- Reeza Hendricks
- Donovan Ferreira