I keep going back to a moment from the Proteas’ 2024 T20 final against India in Barbados – it is hard not to, even when you don’t want to.
The dugout at the Kensington Oval is a small, tight space tucked right beside the field. The Proteas were right beside the Indian team, so much so that the Indian guys literally had to walk in front of them to get to their seats.
We were chasing a decent enough Indian total in the Proteas’ first proper white-ball final. I was there in the role of performance coach for the Rob Walter-led Proteas.
It was time for the guys to get on with it. Aiden Markram lost his wicket early. Reeza Hendricks followed. Then Tristan Stubbs came in at four and played a strong sweep against Axar Patel, and I remember thinking: okay, that’s good. Axar is dangerous, and Stubbs has played with and against him for a while in the IPL.
I was sitting next to Heinrich Klaasen. David Miller was on his other side. And for a long stretch we were just chatting quietly. A very normal conversation between professionals while the innings unfolded.
We spoke at times about cricket, about chasing philosophies and the like, at times just about general stuff. I typically choose to stay fairly quiet within a match unless players choose to speak to me.
When Klaasen went in, it felt like we were a little on the back foot but his aggression off the mark belied any pressure he may have been feeling. He approached each ball on its merits and took the Indian attack on.
I remember him hitting two balls right over our heads – onto the top of the stand behind us – and we all had the same reaction: phwoar. There was an immediate energy lift and you could feel people starting to think: “We’ve got this,” or at least, “We could get this.”
And then when the worm had finally turned in our favour, Klaasen nicked off to a ball that more often than not would have been dispatched. It started to unravel quickly. Everyone knew Jasprit Bumrah had overs left that could really hurt us and our tail was longer than it is today. We had lost too many early wickets, and Bumrah and the rest of the Indian bowlers tore through the tail.
Ruthless
T20 is ruthless. One over or even one big moment can flip the whole match on its head.
But I believe the current Proteas group is the best-placed team to win it in 2026. And not because they’ve discovered some mystical way to overcome “choking”. They’re best placed because they’ve built a system in their team that makes them hard to break.
1. They are the most balanced team in the tournament – and they’re in form.
This is a team without obvious soft spots. In T20 cricket, balance is crucial. And this Proteas squad has more of it than any side in the competition.
Start with the batting depth. In the last edition, Keshav Maharaj was batting at eight. Now they’ve got Corbin Bosch there, who is a genuine all-rounder. When you bat down to eight, you have more options, and far less panic when a wicket falls. It allows the top order to bat more bravely.
Then look at the bowling. They’ve got four seamers, all wicket-taking options, all comfortably north of 140km/h and none of them so-called “holding bowlers”.
This is a luxury a lot of other teams simply don’t have. On top of that, there are three handy spin options sitting inside the top six: Markram’s off-spin has already played an important role in this tournament, but Stubbs and Dewald Brevis can also bowl a tweaker or two if required.
And then there’s Quinton de Kock. The fisherman at heart is a genius at reading the conditions. His voice carries real weight in this group. If he’s in form and feeling refreshed, that influence is felt through his calm demeanour and conviction at the top of the order.
2. The Proteas have the most dangerous attack – and that changes the pressure equation.
The thing about pressure in T20 is that it forces teams off-plan. And when you go off-plan, that’s when you make big errors. The Proteas’ attack is built to create exactly that kind of pressure – relentless, over after over, with no respite.
Every bowler in this attack is a wicket-taking threat. With no passengers, there are no overs where a batting side can breathe easy and rotate comfortably.
That pressure compounds. One dot ball becomes two, a wicket falls, a batter comes in cold, and suddenly the required rate is climbing and plans are fraying.
The influence of Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi is massive. Not just for their skill, but their presence. When they speak, people listen. Lungi is the tournament’s top wicket-taker, and KG looks in flow.
That combination sets the tone for the whole bowling group. Keshav Maharaj will be his usual self; Marco Jansen and Bosch couldn’t be surrounded by better.
No entitlement
3. They’re less desperate – and there’s a low-entitlement culture running through the group.
Modern international cricket doesn’t give you years to sit in pain. It often feels like there is a game every five seconds. Rabada has said that after the 2024 final he was bleak for a week, then he moved on.
That’s not because the stakes were low, it’s because the rhythm of elite cricket forces you forward. You simply don’t have time to get too up or down.
That rhythm has created something valuable in this group: a low-entitlement culture. They don’t feel like they deserve it. And they don’t carry the weight that the “golden era” might have.
And that starts with the captain. Aiden Markram is about as low-ego as they come – popular, well-liked, but completely uninterested in the spotlight or a flashy lifestyle.
When he’s not playing cricket, all he wants is to unwind with some quiet time in the bush. That simplicity radiates through the group. He’s a selfless leader and the guys love him for it.
Now that he’s in the runs, that steadiness rubs off even more. He won’t waste time on things that don’t need attention, he knows how to get the best out of different personalities, and he stays calm on the field.
4. Coach Shukri Conrad has protected his team from outside interference.
This, to me, is one of the biggest shifts. Shukri has taken a leaf out of Rassie Erasmus’ book in the way he manages upward and sideways. He has shielded his players from the noise that has derailed Proteas teams before, and he’s picked the team he wants to pick in every series. He’s got the people around him that he wants. And he’s done it by being exactly who he is: forthright, honest, direct.
The result is significant. The media has been largely on the Proteas’ side going into this competition. Social media, too, for the most part. And there has been almost zero political noise around team selection heading into this tournament. If you know anything about South African cricket, you’ll understand how rare and how valuable that is.
It means the players can focus entirely on their cricket. They’re in their bubble and are supported. And the best kind of support is, in many ways, simply being left alone to do their work. That’s the gift of a coach who manages the ecosystem, not just the XI.
5. They are the most connected group – and connection creates clarity
Do I think the guys all braai together on weekends or call each other best mates? I don’t, but I actually think it goes deeper than that on a performance level.
This group knows each other’s games inside and out. They know each other’s strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. They’ve played a mountain of cricket together over the years and that shared experience has built a lot of trust and information flow.
You saw it in the last game: Jansen carrying drinks, talking to Lungi on the sideline, offering specific tactical insight. And that would be exactly the same the other way around. The micro-conversations happening on and off the field carry real weight because they come from people who genuinely understand each other’s games.
That matters enormously in big moments. Because pressure tests your communication as much as it tests your skill. Connection is the quickest antidote to isolation, and isolation is where pressure becomes corrosive. This Proteas group won’t let each other get isolated, and that provides resilience.
The World Test Championship victory at Lord’s in 2025 was proof this group doesn’t need to outrun a tag.
If South Africa win this tournament, it will be because the team stayed connected, stayed adaptable, stayed protected from noise, and executed the basics when it mattered most.
And if they lose, it won’t be because of a curse. It will be because T20 is unforgiving. One over is sometimes the whole story. DM
Tom Dawson-Squibb is a performance coach and the co-author of Humanball: A Leadership Journey in South African Rugby with Nic Rosslee. Nic is an entrepreneur and writer.