News of South Africa’s 15-man squad for next month’s T20 World Cup landed with a familiar thud: another consistent domestic performer left watching from the sofa. This time it is Ottneil Baartman, the SA20’s all-time leading wicket-taker, who finds himself outside the tent despite a record that keeps improving.
Selectors, led by Patrick Moroney, finalised the squad barely a week into the fourth SA20 campaign. They opted for sheer pace – Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Kwena Maphaka and Anrich Nortje – and argued that early-tournament form should not sway a World Cup call. Fair enough, yet it still feels odd to ignore a bowler who has struck 41 times in the competition, leapfrogging even the towering Jansen.
Dale Steyn, Baartman’s bowling mentor at Sunrisers Eastern Cape for the league’s first three seasons, did not hide his disappointment. “He’s the highest wicket taker in SA20, won the league twice and made a final, let me remind you, that’s a comp that has 4 INTERNATIONAL players (often batters) plus all the PROTEAS! He’s number 1,” Steyn posted on social media. “Thats TOP quality, but he’ll be sitting home for this years 20/20 WC.”
Steyn’s numbers check out. Only Rabada (34 wickets) comes close, and Baartman’s victims include Heinrich Klaasen, Jonny Bairstow and Rashid Khan – not exactly lower-order rabbits. More to the point, Baartman offers something the current squad lacks: genuine skiddiness at the crease, the kind that hurries batters even on true pitches. Ngidi supplies deceptive slower balls, but variation is otherwise thin.
That need was highlighted on Sunday at Newlands, where Paarl Royals rolled MI Cape Town for their lowest SA20 total. Baartman’s 2 for 8 in 2.4 overs turned the screw, his dismissal of Nicholas Pooran – a sliced slog off a ball that held back – summing up his value in the middle overs.
So why the snub? South Africa have played 29 T20Is since the 2024 final defeat to India; Baartman has appeared in only 11. Injuries have contributed, but a deeper issue is the selection panel’s clear preference for height and outright pace. The 31-year-old does not fit that mould, even if his 130-ish kph deliveries arrive quicker than the speed gun suggests.
Most headlines have centred on surprise batting picks Jason Smith and Tony de Zorzi. Inside the changing rooms, bowlers were just as puzzled. Paarl captain David Miller admitted the news hit hard: “It’s obviously hard on guys,” he said. “I’ve been in that position back in the day, not making a World Cup [2011 ODI World Cup and 2012 T20 World Cup], being a part of the team and then missing out, and it’s a bit of a blow. You feel for them. Unfortunately, there’s only a squad of 15. At the end of the…” Miller tailed off, perhaps sensing there is little more to say when the door is already closed.
Baartman himself has kept quiet publicly. Those close to him insist the fast-medium seamer is channeling frustration into wickets, a response selectors cannot ignore forever. Yet the World Cup begins in a month, and South Africa must now live – or go home early – with the attack they have chosen.
On paper it is fearsome: Rabada and Nortje steaming in with the new ball, Jansen’s bounce through the middle, Ngidi’s cutters at the death. Still, conditions in the Caribbean can neutralise raw speed. Slower surfaces reward bowlers who hit nibbling lengths and disguise pace off the ball – precisely Baartman’s brief.
For now, Steyn’s tweet hangs in the air, an awkward reminder that statistics sometimes shout louder than reputation. If South Africa fall short again, expect the conversation to return to the man left behind.
