Proteas Men and Women will eye 2026 for T20 breakthrough

A Cricket World Cup always seems to be around every second corner and in 2026 it’s no different. Both the men’s and women’s T20 Cricket World Cups will take place, and both Proteas national sides will aim to do one better than they did in the previous editions of the tournament.

In June 2024, the Proteas Men made their very first World Cup final when they reached the pinnacle in Bridgetown, Barbados, against India. They fell short of lifting the trophy by seven runs. Four months later, the Proteas Women tasted the same fate against New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates, falling short by 32 runs at the final hurdle.

The Proteas Men will have the first opportunity to seal silverware when they jet over to India and Sri Lanka at the start of February for the month-long tournament. It will be head coach Shukri Conrad’s first white-ball appearance at the helm of the national men’s side. They have been rocky in T20 internationals in 2025, but they will hope everything clicks once they touch down on the subcontinent.

The Proteas Women, meanwhile, who have made the final of the last two T20 World Cups, fly over to England in July in pursuit of their maiden major ICC trophy. They will be boosted by the reintroduction of former captain Dané van Niekerk, who has recently made her return to the national fold. Her experience in the middle order could be the difference between three-times finalists and becoming champions.

The tournament will likely be the final major one for several stalwarts in the side, including star all-rounder Marizanne Kapp.

Men’s red-ball success

2025 could hardly have been better for the Proteas Men in Tests: eight matches, seven wins and only one defeat. Among those seven victories was the historic World Test Championship (WTC) win against Australia at Lord’s Cricket Ground in England.

For South Africa to reach the WTC final again in 2027, they will need to be equally superb in 2026.

After zero Test matches hosted in South Africa across an entire summer for the first time since the country’s reintroduction into international sport, the Proteas have a big summer of Test matches to follow. South Africa will host a three-match series in the country for the first time since the start of 2022, when they played India. This time round, England and Australia will be visiting.

Australia will touch down in October for a Test and one-day international (ODI) tour, whereas England will be arriving in December for a three-format tour, which will feature three matches in each format.

In November, a two-match Test series and three ODIs against Bangladesh will be sandwiched in between these marquee incoming tours.

Top-notch performances in the red-ball matches at home will almost guarantee a second successive appearance in the WTC final in 2027. South Africa is second in the standings at the moment, and there is only a two-match away series against Sri Lanka to come in early 2027 as their final one in the current cycle.

Between the tour of Australia and the T20 World Cup at the start of the year, South Africa’s fixtures are sparse. There is, of course, an unofficial Indian Premier League (IPL) window for three months from March to May. Several Proteas stars will be fighting it out in India for the biggest trophy in T20 franchise cricket.

Summer feast at home

What has become the little sister to the IPL, the SA20, starts on the Day of Goodwill in December and runs into the new year, with the final set for 25 January at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town.

The fourth season of the tournament, which starts in December instead of January for the first time (because of an open schedule in South African cricket, with the Proteas having no Test matches penned in), is expected to be as popular and the crowds as big as the seasons that have gone before.

The SA20 will take centre stage this summer before it moves back to its regular start date in January 2027.

Between the end of the SA20 and the T20 World Cup, South Africa will play three T20 internationals against West Indies at home in January – in the space of one week. This will constitute their final preparation for the major tournament. The series was initially scheduled for five matches, but because the schedule for the T20 World Cup was only announced at the end of September, time constraints forced the tour to be shortened.

Women’s charge

Having reached the final of the World Cup’s 50-over version for the first time in South African cricket history in 2025, the Proteas Women had a subdued return to action in the country. Ireland, who only turned professional recently, had little chance against a full-strength Proteas Women outfit in their six-match tour comprising three T20Is and three ODIs.

Through February and the start of March, a team in a slightly darker hue of green, Pakistan, will play a three-match T20 and ODI series tour in South Africa. They are expected to put up a stronger fight.

The final match of the ODI series in Durban on 1 March will be the annual Black Day, when the Proteas Women will don a black kit instead of green and gold to raise awareness and funds to combat gender-based violence in the country.

Whereas the Proteas Men will have several countries headed to South Africa to meet them in 2026, the Women will be going on tour. A few days after taking on Pakistan in the final ODI, the side will head over to New Zealand for a three-week sojourn. They will face off against the White Ferns in five T20Is and a three-match ODI series. It will be the first time the Proteas take on the White Ferns in a T20I fixture since the final of the T20 World Cup in 2024.

South Africa will be eager for vengeance as both senior national squads look to 2026 to clinch their first major title in the shortest format. DM