Nortje injured again, Van der Dussen to lead newish-looking South Africa T20I side

Seamers Gerald Coetzee and Nandre Burger will make their return to international cricket after eight and 11 months respectively in South Africa's T20I tri-series in Zimbabwe next month. Coetzee was sidelined by a hamstring and then a groin injury over the home summer while Burger has been out with a lower-back stress fracture. Both are currently in action at the Major League Cricket tournament in the USA.

South Africa are without regular captain Aiden Markram, batters Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs and David Miller, allrounder Marco Jansen, pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj (who will lead the Test side in Zimbabwe). Anrich Nortje has a stress-related injury of the back and was unavailable for selection. Tabraiz Shamsi, who like Nortje is no longer contracted to CSA, has also not been included. Head coach Shukri Conrad revealed that he will have a conversation with wristspinner in the next week or so to determine his plans with the national side going forward. Heinrich Klaasen has retired from international cricket.

"The all-format guys have been rested. If you go back to what their last couple of months have looked like, they played Test Series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan back home, then they had SA20, then they went straight from there into an IPL, and the IPL went on for a bit longer. Then we had the World Test Championship Final. Their last couple of months have been chock-a-block. If you cast your eye on what the next few months look like for us, starting with this series and then a couple of days after we go to Australia and England, we felt it was the best thing for them to freshen up," Conrad said from Zimbabwe. "That was the big thing for me, for them to get a really good break away from cricket and freshen up. Then also use this opportunity to look at guys that potentially could stake a claim to make that T20 World Cup squad. Our sights are firmly now on what that T20 World Cup squad could look like."

In Markram's absence, Rassie van der Dussen will captain the side, having also done so on South Africa's tour to West Indies before last year's T20 World Cup. There is experience in the form of Reeza Hendricks and Lungi Ngidi and four uncapped players. Exciting left-handed batter Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who is also in the Test squad, is in line for a T20I debut alongside Rubin Hermann, left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy and allrounder Corbin Bosch.

On Pretorius, Conrad said: "He's a special breed. He's come up, played in the U19 World Cup, did really well there, debuted in the SA20 and was phenomenal there. Then he played first-class cricket for the Titans, scored a hundred on debut, and a hundred in the final, so that says that there's something special about him. We're obviously excited to have him and some of the other younger bucks in the set-up and to see what his journey is going to look like going forward."

The series is the first white-ball assignment for Conrad, who has already been in charge of the Test side since 2023 and will take on the extra workload until 2027. On appointment in May, Conrad stressed that he expected to field squads that are as close to full strength as possible outside of major tournaments but his first rodeo as white-ball coach has not panned out that way.

With next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in mind, South Africa have included three spinners in Muthusamy, George Linde and Nqabayomzi Peter. Linde was among the top 10 wicket-takers at the SA20 while Peter played for South Africa in tours towards the latter end of last year. "Having three quality spin options gives us a great deal of variety, especially in conditions like Harare," Conrad said in a statement.

The batting line-up is headlined by the return of Dewald Brevis, who played two T20Is for South Africa against Australia in 2023 and scored five runs collectively. Then, Brevis was being fast-tracked onto the international scene after topping the run-charts at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup. He has since had two full domestic seasons and impressed across formats, including finishing as the sixth-highest run-scorer at the SA20 last summer. Brevis also had an eye-catching stint as a replacement player for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025.

"Dewald has matured nicely," Conrad said. " From the last I worked with him at the Under-19 World Cup, there's a certain level of maturity. He's got experience under his belt now with regards to first-class cricket. He's obviously played a lot of T20 cricket around the world - IPL and he had a stint with Hampshire, so I think in terms of that, the level of experience is a lot bigger. We certainly don't want guys to come here now and start changing things because they feel it's international level. Whatever they've got, we want to enhance that and we want them to showcase that. So exciting times for him."

Hermann was the fifth-leading run-scorer at the SA20 and Pretorius topped the charts. All three have been called up on the back of those performances.

South Africa's pace department includes left-arm seamer Kwena Maphaka, who is also in the Test squad, and allrounder Andile Simelane, who has played five T20Is. "Kwena has spent time at the IPL, he's been involved with the SA20, he's played one or two games for South Africa so he's only going to get better for that," Conrad said. "He's definitely one that we've got our eye on in terms of not only now but the future as well. I think it's a bright future. He needs to play as much first-class cricket as he possibly can, just so that he continually understands and his body gets used to the rigours of playing first-class cricket."

The tri-series, which starts on July 14, also includes New Zealand, who will be coached by South Africa's former white-ball coach, Rob Walter. All seven matches will be played in Harare.

Rassie van der Dussen (capt), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Reeza Hendricks, Rubin Hermann, George Linde, Kwena Maphaka, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Nqabayomzi Peter, Lhuan-dré Pretorius, Andile Simelane