Rickelton wants to lean on IPL experience to make most of World Cup call-up

Ryan Rickelton was at a braai at Tristan Stubbs' house during the SA20 when he saw Donovan Ferreira fracture his shoulder and knew that could end Ferreira's T20 World Cup hopes. Rickelton was right. But despite leading the SA20 run-charts at the time, he didn't think he would be the person picked to replace Ferreira.

"I said to Stubbo, there's a call coming your way," Rickelton said in Cape Town on Monday. And he was right again.

Stubbs was called up in Ferreira's spot, though by the time news of that broke, Rickelton had some of his own.

Three days after the social with Stubbs and with MICT knocked out of the SA20, Rickelton's phone rang with news that Tony de Zorzi had not recovered from a hamstring tear and Rickelton would be added to South Africa's T20 World Cup squad. "I actually went on holiday for a bit, and then got a call saying 'Your holiday's over. You're coming back," he said. And it was not what he expected at all.

"I had planned a really nice month out here with the Lions, domestically and it's nice to be at home. I've also recently moved houses, so the opportunity to be at home for a bit was quite exciting for me, but it's always a massive honour to go to the World Cup and represent South Africa as well, so there's no hiding from that but it's been a bit of a mixed bag (of feelings) for me."

Rickelton seemed to know as early as the SA20 opening match, in which he scored the first of his two hundreds in the season, that he would not be part of South Africa's T20 World Cup plans and said he was "at peace" with the non-selection. He had already been dropped from the squad for last year's India series after only one score of significance on the winter trips to Australia and England, (118 runs in five innings with a strike rate of 132.58) and Quinton de Kock's comeback, especially given that he is also a left-handed wicketkeeper opener, all but sealed Rickelton's exclusion.

Still, when he scored his second century he did a KL Rahul-style "this is my ground" celebration and said it was inspired by Rahul's message of reminding people he was still there. Now that Cricket South Africa have been forced to remember, is Rickelton actually ready for a return?

"I've got to try and work through some things in my own head and how I want to go about it, and hopefully I can try and figure that out this week," he said.

Specifically, Rickelton will think about his approach in the subcontinent, where he has two ducks from two ODIs in India but scored a century in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

"I probably need to lean a little bit more on my IPL experience. It was one-day cricket where I was struggling. I suppose I got a bit of experience with the IPL, with the pressure, I'm quite familiar with the ground and probably a lot of the players I'm going to come up against," he said.

Rickelton had a decent IPL for Mumbai Indians in 2025, scoring 388 runs in 14 innings including three fifties. He was opening the batting then but is likely to slot in at No. 3 now for South Africa with de Kock and Aiden Markram the preferred openers, and that is something else he is trying to wrap his head around.

"I don't know where I'm going to bat, if I am going to be at the top two or three or wherever, so that's going to be a new experience for me as well. But I have that experience in India now. I need to probably lean on that more than ever. And just accept that generally India gets good wickets," he said. "I felt like I was batting well in India [in the ODIs], I just had no returns at all. In terms of moving well and hitting the ball well and training well, I was doing all of those things so hopefully I'll find that there and hopefully I can get better returns. I'll definitely leverage a lot of my experience in the IPL and try to use that to my betterment."

In-between the strategising, Rickelton is also grappling with how happy to feel about being included in the squad after not being in the original plans and has come to the conclusion that he needs to embrace it.

"Mentally, I'd made peace with being left out and I didn't think I'd be in this situation right now," he said. "But obviously there's excitement at the opportunity to go to a World Cup. It will be my first World Cup game. I've gone to a World Cup and not played a game so from a cricketing perspective, it's extremely exciting for me. The opportunity to represent South Africa in a really good South African side is something that I'm champing at the bit to do."

Rickelton was part of South Africa's 2024 T20 World Cup squad, where he was included as a reserve batter and didn't play a match. That outfit reached the final and he believes South Africa have what it takes to go one better this time, especially after the way their players performed at the SA20.

All South Africa's top six are in good form, with four (de Kock, Dewald Brevis, Rickelton and Markram) in the top five run-scorers in the SA20 and Stubbs with a title-winning half-century in the final.

"If you've got all your batters firing on all cylinders, it gives you a greater chance than ever going into this tournament," he said. "In 2024, that was a killer team that we had in the final that we should have won, which was extremely disappointing, but just the opportunity to be there was important.

"At ICC events, everything ramps up. Especially in India, where cricket is a religion. The intensity at which the game is played goes through the roof. Everyone gets up for it, no matter what physical or mental state you're in. Every country gets up for it, and every game is a big game. We've got four really big games in our pool, and hopefully we can progress to the Super Eights, where obviously each game gets more difficult and more important as well.

"The intensity will be there, the attitude will be up there, the commitment from the group will really be good. If I can match and rival that, then hopefully I give myself the best chance as well as the team."