Tabraiz Shamsi will sit out the forthcoming SA20 season after informing MI Cape Town he is unavailable “for personal reasons”. The left-arm wrist-spinner, signed for R500,000 at September’s auction, had been lined up for his first campaign with the defending champions.
“We respect Tabraiz’s decision and wish him well,” the franchise noted in a short statement.
To fill the gap, MI Cape Town have recalled all-rounder Thomas Kaber, another left-arm wrist-spinner familiar with the set-up. Kaber played eight matches in the 2023-24 competition and made a single appearance during last season’s title run. Across seven SA20 bowling innings he has claimed ten wickets at 16.60, with an economy rate of 8.05. His batting returns are modest—34 runs in four innings, three of them not-outs—but he lengthens the lower order.
Spin depth still looks healthy: Rashid Khan, George Linde and Dane Piedt join Kaber, while the pace group features Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Corbin Bosch and Dwaine Pretorius. Shamsi’s absence, though, removes a proven T20 specialist who played for Joburg Super Kings last year and Paarl Royals before that. Internationally, his most recent outing came at the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Shamsi has kept a busy freelance schedule, currently representing Northern Warriors in the Abu Dhabi T10. Earlier this year he declined a Cricket South Africa central contract and missed the ODI tour of India, underlining a selective approach to workload.
For Kaber, the call-up comes on the back of steady domestic form. Turning out for Warriors in the ongoing CSA T20 Challenge, he has seven wickets in six matches, conceding just 6.31 runs an over.
MI Cape Town begin their title defence on Boxing Day at Newlands against Durban’s Super Giants. The Cape Town ground will also stage the final on 25 January. How smoothly Kaber slots into the middle-overs job originally earmarked for Shamsi could prove decisive in the champions’ bid for back-to-back titles.
