England, SA face questions on road to the T20 World Cup
Selection dilemmas, fitness concerns, and an unsettled XI - both teams begin their T20 World Cup buildup with more questions than answers
Alan Gardner
09-Sep-2025 • 5 hrs ago
Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum will oversee white-ball series against South Africa • PA Photos/Getty Images
Big picture: World Cup planning gets serious (sort of)
And so we reach the final staging post of the England Men's home international summer. Notwithstanding a beano to Ireland next week, which might be even more weather-challenged than three T20Is against South Africa in the UK in September.
Harry Brook is the last man standing, the white-ball captain having played all of England's 15 games across formats for the season. Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith were due to join him for the last hurrah, before England's management had a change of heart during the ODIs and opted to give both players a rest. But Brook will have to wait for an opportunity to put his feet up, as he sits out the Ireland trip.
Staying on the treadmill is tough enough, never mind keeping track of priorities. This series ought to figure more prominently than the ODIs that preceded it, since there is a T20 World Cup on the horizon - it's over there, in India and Sri Lanka early next year, just peeking out from behind the Ashes. But England will make do and mend without a first-choice XI in any of their six games over the next 11 days, intent only on getting to the finish line. After which, there'll be a few weeks off, then back to the grind for a white-ball tour of New Zealand followed by - hello again! - the Ashes in Australia.
Brendon McCullum admitted after the third and final ODI, which England won in record-breaking fashion despite already conceding the series, that they were still getting to grips with easing their multi-format players through a punishing schedule. Throw in the ever-increasing demands of the franchise T20 circuit - and for some of the players involved here, the SA20 auction is the biggest event happening this week - and the balancing act only gets harder.
(South Africa's solution to fixture pile-up has been to programme an entire home season without a Test - although they still have upcoming red-ball commitments in Pakistan and India. Wherever you look, the stresses and strains are apparent.)
This will be South Africa's third T20I engagement in recent months, having toured Australia and Zimbabwe, where they played a tri-series with New Zealand - though some hotchpotch selection means they only won three games (two of them against Zimbabwe) out of eight. They were expecting to welcome back David Miller against England, after allowing him to play the Hundred as a precursor; but a hamstring strain sustained in Northern Superchargers purple means he will instead miss the entire series.
There are also question marks over the fitness of Kagiso Rabada, after he sat out the ODI legs in Australia and England with ankle inflammation. Shukri Conrad has said previously that South Africa would be taking a "conservative approach" with Rabada, with T20Is currently higher up the pecking order.
All of which means there is an air of uncertainty over proceedings, which are due to commence in Cardiff on Wednesday evening (weather permitting). England will expect a sterner test than that provided by West Indies earlier in the summer, as Brook began his tenure with a 6-0 sweep across formats. South Africa, finalists at the last World Cup, look to be further ahead with their planning - even if it is only three months since Heinrich Klaasen's sudden retirement left a big hole to fill in their middle order.
Both sides will be looking for answers. Don't be surprised if the series only throws up more questions.
Form guide
England WWWLL (last five T20Is, most recent first)
South Africa LWLLL
South Africa LWLLL
In the spotlight: Sam Curran and Dewald Brevis
Is the Bazball revolution big enough to include Sam Curran? We may be about to find out. Having seemingly been cast as someone who did not "fit the mould" of what McCullum was after with the Test side, he slipped down the pecking order in white-ball cricket, too, last playing in the Caribbean at the back end of 2024. That was under the guidance of an interim coach in Marcus Trescothick, so this will be Curran's first chance to impress McCullum, who took charge across formats at the start of the year. If he can continue his good form from the Hundred and T20 Blast, and Make Things Happen in the manner of his first coming in international cricket, he could soon offer a solution to some of England's ODI problems, too.
It is now more than three years since Dewald Brevis, South Africa's "Baby AB", burst into public consciousness by earning an IPL deal before having even played a first-class game. But until June of this year, his only mark on international cricket were innings of 5 and 0 in two T20Is against Australia back in 2023. A fifty on Test debut in Zimbabwe augured well, but the full range of his abilities shone through in remote Darwin last month as he smoked South Africa's highest T20 international score - 125 not out off 56 balls - and second-fastest hundred, in only his ninth innings. That innings, no doubt, contributed to Brevis being the No. 1 draw at Tuesday's SA20 auction, where he went past his captain, Aiden Markram, as the tournament's most-expensive ever signing at R16.5 million (US$940,000). The spotlight won't be going elsewhere for a while.
Team news: Miller ruled out of series
England named their team a day in advance, with Jos Buttler moving back up to open in the absences of Smith and Duckett. He is reunited with Phil Salt, who missed the West Indies series on paternity leave. Tom Banton and Will Jacks, both T20 openers by trade, are carded down at Nos. 6 and 7, with Curran a place above. He will be one of three pace-bowling options, alongside Jamie Overton and Jofra Archer, with four spinners - Jacks, Jacob Bethell, Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid - also at Brook's disposal.
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid
South Africa have opted not to call up a replacement for Miller, whose absence is likely to open up a spot for Donovan Ferreira - Oval Invincibles' "heater" - to play just his seventh T20I and first since December. Keshav Maharaj returns as the frontline spin option after missing the two previous series, while Marco Jansen is set for his first appearance since the World Test Championship final in June after suffering thumb surgery. If Rabada is being kept in cotton wool, then 19-year-old quick Kwena Maphaka is primed to take his place.
South Africa: (Possible) 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Ryan Rickleton (wk), 3 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lungi Ngidi
Pitch and conditions: Seamers bang it in
Cardiff can be a tough place to bowl spin, because of the short straight boundaries - and will prove a challenge if England stick to their World Cup-orientated strategy of packing in the slow-bowling options. The surface was green a day out, but is expected to get a trim. However, a forecast for steady rain through the next 24 hours, and potentially on into the evening, might render such concerns moot.
Stats and trivia
- South Africa have won four of their last five T20Is against England, which includes victories at the 2021 and 2024 World Cups and a 2-1 bilateral series success in 2022.
- The trip three years ago saw South Africa win comfortably in Cardiff, by 58 runs - although only four members of that side (Stubbs, Maharaj, Rabada and Ngidi) are involved this time around.
- Brook led England to a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies in his first outing as T20I captain. In all T20, he has captained 23 times - with England, Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers - and been victorious in 15 for a win/loss ratio of 2.50.
- Barring washouts, Brook will win his 50th T20I cap in the third game of the series at Trent Bridge.
Quotes
"We've got to make sure we do what we do as a team. We're not too concerned about putting a statement out for others to see. It's for our own selves, making sure we are true to our own selves cricket wise - batting, bowling, fielding - and letting our cricket do the rest. Hopefully we can put a show on."
Adil Rashid says England's focus is on themselves
Adil Rashid says England's focus is on themselves
"They are always a good team. Expecting it to be a really good challenge for us. They've won heaps of white-ball tournaments and were the trendsetters at one stage. Looking forward to facing them and the strengths that they bring to the table, and seeing where we are as a team against really good opposition."
Aiden Markram, meanwhile, is happy to talk up the opposition
Aiden Markram, meanwhile, is happy to talk up the opposition
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick