South Africa will have familiar faces steering the ship in Australia next month, with Aiden Markram resuming T20I duties and Temba Bavuma reclaiming the ODI armband. Both sat out parts of the recent Zimbabwe tour – Markram through rotation, Bavuma with a troublesome hamstring picked up in the World Test Championship final – and their return gives the touring party a more settled feel.
“It’s great to have our senior players back in the mix after their rest following the WTC Final,” men’s red-ball coach and current sole selector Shukri Conrad said. “Their experience and quality add real value to the group as we continue to build a strong core in both formats. Every series from here on plays a part in shaping our squads for next year’s T20 World Cup and the 50-over World Cup at home in 2027.”
Conrad named the squads a week before Patrick Moroney, the new convenor of selectors, officially starts work on 1 August. That timing matters: this is the last group Conrad chooses entirely on his own, and he looks to have played things straight – no big left-field calls, no headlines for the sake of them, just a couple of pointed omissions.
The headline absentee is Marco Jansen. The tall left-armer is still recovering from surgery on the thumb he damaged during that WTC final defeat, so the management has resisted any temptation to rush him back. David Miller is also missing, but for a more positive reason: a stint in the Hundred. He is expected to re-join the national side for the English leg of the white-ball winter.
Among the bowlers, Kagiso Rabada anchors the pace attack, while Keshav Maharaj keeps his place as senior spinner in the 50-over squad. He is, however, left out of the T20Is as South Africa audition options for the Caribbean-USA World Cup next June. Left-armers George Linde and Senuran Muthusamy are rewarded for tidy work in Zimbabwe, and uncapped leg-spinner Nqaba Peter gets a first proper look at this level.
Tabraiz Shamsi, who turned down a national contract last year, remains on the outside. Conrad admitted the lines of communication need work. “Unfortunately, things got away from me, and I was never able to have that chat,” he said. “The spinners who have been selected have the inside track.”
The batting-unit tweaks are gentle rather than sweeping. Tristan Stubbs and Ryan Rickelton return for the T20Is after patchy IPL campaigns; Dewald Brevis and Lhuan-dre Pretorius stay on from the Zimbabwe trip; and Matthew Breetzke plus Tony de Zorzi bolster the 50-over top order. Wiaan Mulder steps in as a seam-bowling all-rounder while Jansen rehabilitates.
Gerald Coetzee’s absence raises eyebrows given his raw pace, but Conrad was direct. “There are only so many quicks you can put in your team in terms of balance,” he said. “The players who have been selected are ahead of Gerald in the pecking order. In the 50-over squad, I wanted to try and get as many allrounders in the squad. You cannot ignore what Corbin Bosch has done. Gerald sits behind him.”
One other notable name missing from the ODI list is Rassie van der Dussen, owner of South Africa’s second-highest career average in the format. Conrad did hint that the experienced right-hander remains part of the longer-term thinking, though the final conversation – like the one with Shamsi – is still pending.
Tour itinerary and squads in full are due from Cricket Australia later this week, but the South African camp expects three T20Is followed by the same number of ODIs, all squeezed into late August. The schedule will be punishing; the need to juggle injury management, player rest and form is only growing. Markram and Bavuma’s presence should at least bring a measure of calm.
The Proteas have been consistently competitive without always finishing the job in ICC events. Selection debates will continue, particularly around the spin mix and the pecking order of the young quicks, yet that is no bad thing. Depth, finally, looks to be building. And with two global tournaments in the next 24 months, every tour from here on counts.
