Dewald Brevis

Dewald Brevis announced himself when he finished the 2022 Under-19 World Cup as the leading run-scorer and earned an IPL deal with Mumbai Indians almost directly off the back of that. But his speedy ascendance could not keep pace with his growing reputation.

Though he embraced the nickname Baby AB, a reference to his role model AB de Villiers and his ability to hit the ball all around the ground batting in the middle-order, Brevis needed time in the domestic game but the temptation to fast-track him was too great. Not least because in October 2022, he smashed the highest T20 score in South Africa - 162 off 57 balls for Titans against Knights. By then the 19-year-old had already played in the CPL and would go on to get deals in the T20 Blast in England and the MLC in USA.

Brevis made his T20I debut in 2023 against Australia, but after scoring only five runs in his first two games, he was sent back to the domestic circuit with a focus on developing his all-format game. He dropped the cute AB moniker and insisted on becoming his own man and his maturity shone through. He was the third highest run-scorer in the 2023-24 one-day cup, and then had a breakthrough summer next season, playing a big role in MI Cape Town clinching their maiden title at the SA20 and finishing as the second-highest run-scorer in the first-class competition, with 573 runs at 47.75, including two hundreds.

He was selected for South Africa's T20I and Test squad to Zimbabwe in June-July 2025 and scored a half-century on Test debut, in Bulawayo.