Sharp scrutiny — each SA20 game ignites yet more debate about Proteas selection

The Proteas T20 World Cup squad was announced six days into the start of this season’s SA20 tournament. It has meant that after every SA20 match, another player’s selection or omission from the squad has been open to scrutiny.

The squad was not without its initial surprises regardless of the action on the field in the SA20. The choice of Dolphins and MI Cape Town big-hitting batter Jason Smith and that of top-order southpaw Tony de Zorzi raised the biggest eyebrows initially.

Neither have been able to fully squash those qualms. De Zorzi has not been on the field for Durban’s Super Giants after being picked up for R200,000 at the auction. He sustained a hamstring injury playing for South Africa in a One Day International against India in December.

Proteas convenor selector Patrick Moroney says De Zorzi is expected to be fully recovered by the end of the month, when the Proteas take on West Indies in three T20Is as their final preparation before the global tournament starts.

Similarly, Proteas star bowler Kagiso Rabada played his first competitive match on 31 December for MI Cape Town after 10 weeks on the sick bed with a rib injury. But with a 12-year run as a national team player, his selection for the World Cup squad has not been as deeply analysed.

Hitting from ball one

Smith’s selection was more out of left field than De Zorzi’s, given that the latter represented South Africa against Pakistan in the format last year (where he made his debut). His hamstring injury ruled him out of South Africa’s five-match T20 series against India.

Smith only has two T20I appearances to his name, coming a year apart in 2024 and 2025. His latest showing against Namibia last year was in a match when the first-choice squad was on the subcontinent, preparing for a multiformat series against Pakistan.

Smith is a bolder selection and if the decision comes off then coach Shukri Conrad and Moroney will look like geniuses; they might look like the opposite if it doesn’t.

He has been inconsistent with the willow in the SA20, swaying from accomplishing the scarcely believable – such as slapping a short ball over point for six – to missing straight balls by spinners. At the time of writing, Smith’s scores for MI Cape Town read: 41 (off 14), one (off two), one (off two), four (off six), 22 (off seven), two (off six) and 13 (off 17).

His power-hitting ability is apparent – one needs to only look at his strike rate of 155.56 this season – but whether he can do it consistently, at the highest level, is another question – one that is usually best answered prior to the global showpiece and not at it.

Comes with the territory

Smith is unlikely to start the tournament in the first-choice playing XI, with previous team selections indicating that Donovan Ferreira is the side’s prime finisher. Ferreira is a multifaceted star, able to launch the white leather out of the stadium. He can keep wicket and, if necessary, he can turn his arm over with accurate off-breaks.

But his main task – hitting the ball as far as it can travel – he hasn’t done too often this SA20 season for Joburg Super Kings. His highest score is only an undefeated 33 with three single-digit scores in the six innings he has batted, at the time of writing.

But perhaps that is the modern role of “finishers” such as Smith and Ferreira in T20 cricket. Ferreira has only faced 50 balls this tournament, eight of which have flown over the ropes with another five drilled against the boundary cushion.

Ferreira has struck a boundary in about every 3.8 deliveries he has faced and his strike rate is 184. Smith smashes a boundary every 4.9 balls. Neither Smith nor Ferreira have had any consistency this season but their ball-striking ability is undeniable. But the attention has been firmly focused on Smith’s selection for the T20 World Cup and not Ferreira’s, mostly attributed to the fact that Ferreira represented South Africa 10 times in the format last year to Smith’s once.

Omissions from squad

The omission from the T20 World Cup squad of Ryan Rickelton and Ottneil Baartman has looked worse every passing day in the SA20. The platform provided by SA20 has seen Rickelton and Baartman force their way into the national team in the past through their excellent performances. This time the tournament was too late for those performances to sway the minds of the selectors.

Given their showings for the national side last year in the shortest format, neither could feel too aggrieved at not having their name announced in the T20 World Cup squad. Rickelton has been in belligerent form with the bat for MI Cape Town, smacking two of the three centuries in this edition of the tournament. At the time of writing he was also leading the run-scoring charts by nearly 100 runs to the chasing Shai Hope.

Baartman, meanwhile, has collected 11 wickets in only four matches for the Paarl Royals. He has leaked more runs than he usually does, with his economy rate at 9.2, but he has the second-most wickets in the tournament so far, having played half the number of matches as his competitors.

Across 2025, Rickelton was only able to pass 20 on one occasion in five knocks for the Proteas. The toss-up for a place in the World Cup squad was between Quinton de Kock and Rickelton, according to Moroney. The selectors decided on the former. In the five T20Is Baartman played for South Africa last year, except for the match in which he claimed four wickets for 24 runs in four overs against India, he struggled for control. He conceded runs at more than 10 runs to the over three times and went wicketless in three out of five matches as well.

Final changes to squads (such as injury replacements) can be made until 31 January before the tournament starts eight days later in India and Sri Lanka.

The Proteas selectors have duly come under scrutiny for their T20 World Cup selections given that the SA20 is still continuing, but they’ve decided to hedge their bets on a format that is often a gamble. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.