South Africa would need to raise its recent form to challenge for the title as it opens its T20 World Cup campaign against Canada, a team short on match practice but looking to make a strong impression, in Ahmedabad on Monday.
South Africa has won only 12 out of the 32 games it has played since losing the 2024 T20 World Cup final to India in June 2024.
However, it now does have the emboldened belief of winning a world title, having ended the trophy drought with the World Test Championship (WTC) triumph last year.
Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs were not part of the original squad but have been rightfully included following injuries to Donavan Ferreria and Tony de Zorzi.
Keshav Maharaj will lead the spin attack, while the performance of pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada will be critical as ever on the batting friendly pitches in India and Sri Lanka.
Quinton de Kock and Dewald Brevis will be the players to watch out for in the batting department.
South African captain Aiden Markram said his team is not carrying the baggage of the previous edition, where it went down against India after controlling the majority of the run chase in Barbados.
“Yeah, look, the previous World Cup is what it is, right? It’s two years ago. It’s done now. We’ve played a lot of cricket since. You have to earn that right (of being a title contender) in your group stage first, and then continuously play good cricket.
“It’s a competition in a format where any team can beat any team. It takes one or two special performances from individuals, and it breaks the game open. So, obviously, we are here to win. We’re motivated to win, especially after 2024. But yeah, that’s not the sole reason for our motivation,” said Markram.
Canada, on the other hand, has not played much high-quality cricket in the last four months. It would be playing its second successive T20 World Cup, with 23-year-old Dilpreet Bajwa taking over captaincy from Nicholas Kirton.
Canada went unbeaten through this cycle’s qualification, winning all six of its Americas Regional contests, including the final.
“It’s a very proud moment for all our players. Most of our players are from India. And as you told, the condition, I think it’s pretty hard in Canada, and thanks to our board, they had our pre-tour in Sri Lanka, and we prepared well. And we had a couple of games where we checked our combination and everything. And I feel, as a captain, we are well-prepared,” said Bajwa.
THE SQUADS
Canada: Dilpreet Bajwa (c), Ajayveer Hundal, Ansh Patel, Dilon Heyliger, Harsh Thaker, Jaskarandeep Singh, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Ravinderpal Singh, Saad Bin Zafar, Shivam Sharma, Shreyas Movva, Yuvraj Samra.
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Marco Jansen, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Jason Smith, Tristan Stubbs.
Match starts at 7 PM IST.
Published on Feb 08, 2026
