South Africa take another shot at a major ICC Trophy, writes Firdose Moonda.
In the last three years, South Africa have made it to three T20 World Cup finals across men’s and women’s national sides but the trophy is out of reach.
The feeling is that it may be fourth time lucky at this year’s tournament, which will be played between 8 February and 8 March across eight venues in India and Sri Lanka.
India are the defending champions after beating South Africa in Barbados in 2024 and will hope home advantage can help them defend their title but there are plenty of strong contenders.
Former champions Pakistan, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Australia will all be looking to reclaim the crown while New Zealand and South Africa are among those aiming for a first title.
It is also an exciting time for smaller teams to mix it with the best and one, Italy, will be making their first T20 World Cup appearance.
HOW IT WORKS
This is the second 20-team T20 World Cup, in which teams are divided into four groups of five, who all play each other once.
During the group stage, there will be three matches on every day from 7 to 19 February.
The top two teams from each group go into the Super Eights, where they will play one team from each of the other three groups.
The Super Eight fixtures are determined based on pre-tournament seedings, which means that teams already have quite a good idea of who they might face.
The top two teams from each of the Super Eight groups go into the semi-finals before the final, which will be played in the world’s largest cricket venue in Ahmedabad.
HOW SOUTH AFRICA ARE POSITIONED
South Africa are in Group D, which might stand for group of death, alongside Afghanistan, New Zealand, Canada and the UAE which makes their group one of the two with three Full Members.
They will be expected to beat the Associate sides of Canada and the UAE but it will be a tough tussle for a top-two finish between South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan.
Historically, South Africa have the edge over both other sides and will be confident of topping the group.
They have beaten New Zealand in 11 of their 18 meetings, and all four times they have met at T20 World Cups, while they have never lost a T20I to Afghanistan.
That includes a nine-wicket win at the 2024 semi-finals.
The other three groups all have two clear favourites with India and Pakistan in Group A, Australia and Sri Lanka in Group B and England and West Indies in Group C.
Expect South Africa’s Group D to be a fight.
CAPTAIN AND COACH
While Aiden Markram led South Africa to the 2024 T20 World Cup final and has experience of major tournaments, this will be all-format coach Shukri Conrad’s first limited-overs competition in charge of the team.
Conrad took over the whiteball duties from Rob Walter, who is now New Zealand’s coach, in July last year and has had plenty of time to get used to the job.
In preparation for this World Cup, South Africa played series in Zimbabwe, Australia, England, Pakistan, India and at home against West Indies for a total of 21 T20Is in seven months leading up to the tournament.
A little known fact about Conrad is that when he first applied for the national coaching job, he hoped he would get the whiteball role because he felt it suited his style more.
Conrad enjoys an attacking, entertaining style of play and won both the domestic fifty-over and T20 trophies in his time with the Cape Cobras (now Western Province).
He also oversaw South Africa’s success at the World Test Championship final in June 2025 and thrives in high-pressure situations.
In Markram, Conrad has a captain that has led Sunrisers Eastern Cape to successive SA20 titles and won an Under-19 World Cup with South Africa in 2014.
Between them, they will hope to have the experience to get South Africa over the line.
WHO CAN MAKE AN IMPACT?
Quinton de Kock retired from ODIs in November 2023 and disappeared from the national conversation after the 2024 T20 World Cup but came back in from the cold 15 months later when he recommitted to white-ball formats.
It did not take him too long to find his rhythm and he scored a century in his second ODI back in November 2025.
In that innings, De Kock proved he had lost none of his touch.
He is still a big hitter, who can use the pull shot aggressively and clears the boundary rope with ease.
De Kock is a proven big occasion player after finishing as South Africa’s leading run-scorer at the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2023 ODI World Cup and another strong performance from him will be key to South Africa’s chances.
Another returnee is speedster Anrich Nortje, who did not play for South Africa for 16 months between the 2024 T20 World Cup final and their tour to India in December 2025 as he recovered from a series of injuries.
Fit again, he is one of South Africa’s most dangerous weapons and an obvious choice for the tournament.
Nortje is South Africa’s leading wickettaker at T20 World Cups and has taken 35 across three tournaments at an eye-watering average of 11.40.
With raw pace and late swing, Nortje is usually entrusted with doing damage at the start of the opposition’s innings but since he has developed a leg-cutter, he can also be used at the death.
In combination with Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi South Africa will have one of the quickest pace packs at the event. Backed up by a good spinner in the form of Keshav Maharaj, they have enough variation to make runscoring difficult.
