According to reports, South Africa are flying out George Linde as cover for the injured Aiden Markram ahead of their Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final against New Zealand.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma and opening batter Tony de Zorzi missed their Champions Trophy 2025 league match against England due to illnesses. Markram led them instead.
However, Markram himself left the ground during the 29th over of the England innings with hamstring problems and did not take further part in the game. It did not prevent South Africa from chasing down 180 with more than 20 overs to spare. “I think it's all right, it was mostly precautionary over anything else,” Markram assured at the post-match press conference.
South Africa will play New Zealand in the second semi-final of the tournament, at Lahore on March 5. It is not clear whether Markram (or, for that matter, Bavuma or de Zorzi) will be fit in time for the game.
According to a report in iol.co.za, South Africa are flying out Linde as Markram’s cover. Now 33, Linde is a left-arm spinner who bats in the lower middle-order. His only two ODIs came on South Africa’s 2021 tour of Sri Lanka: he picked up 3-72 and made 27 runs, once dismissed.
He had not played Test cricket or T20Is since then either, until his rose across the last South African summer. Recalled to the side in December 2024, Linde hit a 24-ball 48 and claimed 4-21 against Pakistan at Durban. He followed this with 4-0-21-1 at Centurion, where he did not need to bat.
From 89 List A games, Linde has 117 wickets at 30.42 while going at 5.24 an over, along with 1,842 runs at 28.33 and a strike rate of 101. He has two five-wicket hauls and 14 fifties. His three Tests include 4-133 against India at Ranchi in 2019-20 and 5-64 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 2020-21.
