The 2024 T20 World Cup offers South Africa's current generation their best chance of winning an ICC trophy. With a relatively simple path through to the Super Eights and a genuinely world-beating squad of players, say it very quietly, but they have to be considered for the 'favourites' tag.
South Africa kicked off their 2024 T20 World Cup campaign with a dominant win against Sri Lanka. Having been put into field first, Anrich Nortje blew through Sri Lanka's top order, ably abetted by Ottneil Baartman in only his second T20I, with Keshav Maharaj one strike away from a hat-trick in his second over.
Despite losing two wickets in the powerplay, David Miller knocked the winning runs off with almost four overs and six wickets to spare. It's the first time South Africa have won their opening match of a T20 World Cup since 2014.
The result also marks arguably the trickiest fixture in their group already done with. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the other two Full Members in Group D, the latter having been beaten twice in a row by the USA ahead of the tournament. While South Africa will have to overcome their 'bogey team', the Netherlands, who spectacularly ended their 2022 T20 World Cup campaign and threatened to derail their 50-over tournament last year, beating Bangladesh and Nepal will, in all likelihood, see South Africa safely through anyway.
Even with a simple path ahead, it's as difficult as ever to talk about South Africa as one of the benchmark teams in a major tournament. Every generation of Proteas have their World Cup scars. While only three of the current incarnation were in the side of the 2015 50-over debacle, this side also have wounds. Knocked out in the group stage of the 2022 T20 World Cup, and on the losing side in the semi-final against Australia last year, the sides from their last three ICC tournaments have significant overlap. But, beyond their simplified route through the group stage, a quick glance at their squad makes it impossible to ignore the significance of their potential this time around.
There a several important differences in their 2024 squad to the side that was knocked out by the Netherlands 18 months ago. The most glaring of those is a new captain in Aiden Markram at the expense of Temba Bavuma. Bavuma's slow strike rate and poor form were a talking point of the Proteas' campaign last time around - he scored 70 runs at a strike rate of 112.90 during the competition. Freeing up his spot at the top of the order allows more power into the side, with Reeza Hendricks opening up with Quinton de Kock. Hendricks has averaged 41.26 at a strike rate of 152.52 in T20Is since the beginning of 2022.
Markram's white-ball resurgence is also important. His move to T20I captaincy came off the back of an incredible 2023 in limited overs cricket, in which he struck at 162.58 in T20Is and was out before reaching double figures only once in the eight innings he played. Getting him in at three with a higher potential of batting in the powerplay, compared to being in the middle-order in the previous edition of the tournament, also adds even more power into the mix.
That's all before you get to the middle order of Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller. Few in the world have been hitting it as well as Klaasen for the last year, and his particular strength against spin on slow pitches makes his prospect even more threatening in this edition. Their collective T20I batting power should be compared to what they were able to achieve in the 50-over World Cup last year. The Miller-Klaasen middle-order engine room, with Marco Jansen filling an invaluable role at No.7, decimated oppositions in India. They're a rare example of when a successful ODI approach can translate across formats.
As for their endless stream of pacers, injury worries seem to have abated just in time for the tournament. Nortje, who had only played five T20Is since the last tournament before the Sri Lanka match, burst back again with 4-7 on a slow pitch. Kagiso Rabada has also come back from injury in time for the campaign. But more notable in their bowling attack against Sri Lanka was Ottniel Baartman.
Baartman came into the equation during the SA20 where he took 18 wickets at 11.77. Having leapfrogged the likes of Lungi Ngidi, Lizaad Williams, Nandre Burger and Andile Phehlukwayo to get into the squad, he showed why against Sri Lanka. Bowling a Test match length in New York, Baartman struck with his first ball in a T20 World Cup and only his second international match. He finished with 1-9 from his four overs. South Africa will play three of their group games in New York, which has already drawn criticism for its conditions. Rather than their power-packed batting lineup, bowlers like Baartman, with Nortje as dangerous as ever, will be lethal.
The other side of the pitch factor is the increased likelihood of upsets. That can't be mitigated for. But if South Africa were to crash out of another World Cup, this would be their biggest missed opportunity in a generation.
