Ryan Rickelton

A sporty child, who played schools' rugby, provincial squash and once held the Gauteng under-14 record for weight-lifting, Ryan Rickelton added keeping wicket to his skillset to become a better cricketer. By then, he was already a batter, coached mostly by his father Ian, who was director of sports at what would become his high school St. Stithians, and inspired by Australian left-handers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist.

From their style of play, Rickelton learnt to combine aggression with consistency and runs came regularly. He was named Cricket South Africa's under-15 player of the year in 2012, but missed out on the 2014 under-19 World Cup and it took several years before he began rising up the ranks at the Lions, in Johannesburg.

Rickelton was the third-highest run-scorer in the 2021-22 first-class competition and made his Test debut against Bangladesh shortly afterwards. He also earned a county stint at Northamptonshire, where he scored two hundreds and four fifties in four matches in 2022 but did not go on South Africa's festive Test tour to Australia because he was overdue surgery on an injured ankle. Cricket South Africa feared that sending him on the tour was risky, in case he was unable to play, but he made a mockery of that when he scored four centuries in five weeks for his domestic side the Lions.

Rickelton was the top batter in the 2022-23 List A domestic challenge, which led to his ODI debut against West Indies in March 2023. Despite strong domestic form, his first two matches brought only 17 runs, and it was only after successfully going under the knife that the really high-profile runs came. He was the leading run-scorer in the 2024 edition of the SA20 and the second-highest run-scorer in CSA's domestic T20 Challenge in the 2023-24 season, with the highest strike rate among the top 12 batters. He forced his way into the 2024 T20 World Cup squad but did not get a game.