South Africa’s Performance in T20 World Cup

South Africa Team Schedule for T20 World Cup 2022

South Africa T20 Squad S.W.O.T Analysis

Strengths – On paper, the South African batting attack packs a punch. Quinton De Kock’s presence at the top of the order lends a lot of assurance while the middle order with van Der Dussen, David Miller and Aiden Markram is both reliable and dangerous at the same time. Heinrich Klassen also displayed good form against India and would be a good addition to the lineup that would make this South African batting unit fearsome in Australia.

Weaknesses – South Africa does have options in bowling but there are still doubts over the combination that would succeed in Australia. While Kagiso Rabada walks right in, both Nortje and Ngidi haven’t played much in the past year owing to injuries and are on their comeback trail. Dwaine Pretorious has added value as an all-rounder but isn’t a frontline pacer for the Proteas. So, bowling looks the weaker suit for South Africa. In batting, they would need Bavuma to come good and come good quickly, else it can put too much pressure on the rest of the big hitters in the lineup.

Opportunities – Every ICC event in this century has begun with the question of whether South Africa will be able to break the hoodoo and lay their hands on the trophy or not. The answer, sadly, has always turned out to be a No.

Threats – For South Africa, historically, their biggest threat has always been their own luck. Even in the las edition of the World Cup, despite a good show, they missed out on progressing to the next round by the barest of margins.

South Africa Team’s Performance in T20 World Cup

Since their readmission to the game in the early 90s, the South African side has always been an exciting one to watch and has produced multiple superstars of the game in all the formats. They even hosted the first ever T20 World Cup in 2007 and started it with a bang as they chased down a 200 plus score without much fuss against West Indies. However, their campaign came to an end in a way that’s become standard South Africa template on how to falter on the big stage as they failed to chase a small total against India to get knocked out in the group stages itself.

In the subsequent editions of the tournament, South Africa haven’t made it beyond the semi-final stage, something that has been their achilles heel even in the 50 over tournament’s history. That means that the country still awaits its first ICC trophy in the 21st century. However, they put on a much better show in the 2021 T20 World Cup where they won four out of the five matches in the Super 12s and failed to progress only because of a weak net run rate. As the team comes to Australia, they will find it encouraging that the conditions are going to be much more suited to them than the conditions of the host nations of the previous four editions of the tournament.

South Africa, who found themselves in a slightly tougher group last time around, will have to contend with India and Pakistan along with Bangladesh in Group 2 of the T20 World Cup. They drew their last series 2-2 against India in India but faced defeat against Pakistan at home as well as away in the last two series between the two sides. These four teams will be joined by two more teams from the Qualifiers.