South Africa’s white-ball rebuild has a simple starting point: every spinner picked for next year’s T20 World Cup must also contribute runs. Head coach Shukri Conrad has 20 T20 internationals, beginning in Darwin this week, to find out who fits that description.
“It’s ideal if you can stack your side with as many allrounders as possible,” Conrad said from Australia. “And when I say allrounders, I mean fully-fledged allrounders: guys that offer quite a lot with the bat, and obviously with the ball as well.”
Those priorities explain why Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, both proven with the ball, are not on the current tour. Instead, Conrad has chosen left-arm options George Linde and Senuran Muthusamy, plus off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen. All three usually bat in the middle or lower order for their provinces and strike at better than 110 in domestic T20 cricket.
By contrast Maharaj and Shamsi sit below that marker and missed last month’s tri-series in Zimbabwe, where Linde and Muthusamy, in Conrad’s words, had the “inside lane” on World Cup selection. Unless their batting develops sharply, the established pair may watch the tournament from home.
A full-circle chance for Linde
For 32-year-old Linde the next ten months could erase an old hurt. He played 11 of the 12 matches before the 2021 World Cup yet failed to make the final squad, fell out of favour and, by his own admission, fell briefly out of love with the game. A recall by then coach Rob Walter for last year’s Pakistan series reignited the spark. Four for 21 with the ball, plus 48 from 24 deliveries, marked a cathartic return.
“It obviously means a lot [to be considered]. It gives you a little bit more confidence and you can play with a little bit more freedom but I don’t really think too much ahead,” Linde said in Zimbabwe. “I’m just trying to focus on the process now and if I don’t do well and Shuks decides I’m not the guy for him, then so be it. I’m just trying to do my best. If I do well and I’m on that plane to the World Cup, happy days. It’s always been a dream of mine to represent South Africa at the World Cup.”
Form with both skills backs up the ambition. Linde followed his Pakistan cameo with 23 not out from 15 balls and 30 from 20 in Harare, alongside tight spells of left-arm spin. Four career T20 fifties underline that these bursts are not flukes.
Muthusamy and Subrayen jostle for space
Muthusamy offers similar dual utility, operating consistently at No. 6 for the Dolphins and delivering nagging left-arm orthodox overs. Subrayen, more of a lower-order hitter, turns the ball the opposite way and brings handy powerplay experience. None is a like-for-like replacement for the attacking wrist-spin of Shamsi, yet Conrad’s logic is clear: if Nos. 8 or 9 can clear the ropes as well as close out an over, the XI gains flexibility.
Former Proteas batter JP Duminy, now a television analyst, believes the idea is sound. “Modern T20 sides want batting to nine. England did it in 2022, Australia before them. South Africa haven’t quite kept pace. This is a catch-up exercise,” Duminy told SuperSport.
Risk versus reward
Leaving out a bowler with 78 T20I wickets is a gamble. Shamsi still owns the best strike rate of any South African spinner in the format and offers genuine variation, especially on slow Asian pitches expected at the 2026 World Cup. Yet the think-tank feels an extra 15 to 20 runs off the bat could swing tight matches more often than a mystery delivery or two.
Statistician Andrew Samson offers perspective. Since the last World Cup, South Africa have lost six T20Is by ten runs or fewer; in four of those, the No. 8 or No. 9 failed to reach double figures. “Plug that hole and you make a semi-final side a final side,” Samson said.
Twenty matches to settle the debate
Conrad now has a block of three games in Australia, five at home to Sri Lanka, another tri-series in the Caribbean and a busy six-game window in India. That volume provides room to test combinations without chopping and changing weekly. However, players know the clock is ticking. A final squad is due in April, leaving little margin for an extended slump.
The coach insists the door is not closed on anyone. Results will be monitored, and T20 franchise form in the SA20 and overseas leagues will matter. But for now he has drawn a line in the sand: every bowler must swing a bat with intent.
Whether that shift propels South Africa beyond their familiar knockout ceiling remains to be seen. What is certain is that spin in Proteas colours is no longer a single-skill job. Allrounders are in vogue, and specialists, for the moment, are on the outside looking in.
