Rickelton 'won't change' approach as he looks to make T20I opening spot his own

There's no Quinton de Kock, or Temba Bavuma, or Reeza Hendricks. While it has not been confirmed that the first of those has retired from the T20Is and the other two are completely out of the picture (though Bavuma probably is), South Africa will be looking at a new opening pair for the next T20 World Cup. Enter Ryan Rickelton and Lhuan-dre Pretorius.

Both are left-handed and both are wicketkeepers. They have 18 T20I caps, two half-centuries and a decade in age between them. That means Rickelton, who enjoyed a breakthrough summer in Tests and ODIs for South Africa and played in his first IPL, could be thrust into the senior role even as he looks to cement himself in the side. How might that alter his usually aggressive approach to batting? Not at all, he said.

"I'm still trying to establish myself in the T20 side but I don't think there'll be any expectation for me to change anything that I've been doing in these last two years," Rickelton said from Darwin, where South Africa are set to play a three-match T20Is series against Australia starting Sunday. "It's just an opportunity for me to hopefully claim that opening spot for this South African side, going into the World Cup and further on past that."

South Africa play three T20Is and will have the experience of regular captain Aiden Markram back in the top order and Rassie van der Dussen in the middle order, which Rickelton believes will allow him to continue to play his natural game. "The way the team is structured fits the mould of how they want me to play too, so I'm pretty comfortable with what's required," he said. "I am always looking to land that first punch and get the side off to a good start no matter who's alongside me at the top."

Rickelton, Markram, as well as other returnees Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada, were all rested from the tri-series tournament in Zimbabwe as South Africa gear up for eight months of almost non-stop cricket. After the Australia tour, they will play white-ball cricket in England before starting their World Test Championship defence in Pakistan. That will be followed by an all-format tour of India, the SA20, a brief home series against West Indies and the T20 World Cup. Those five, and some others, will then go on to play in the IPL which will extend their active time to ten months. For someone like Rickelton, who did not play the MLC this year, the schedule has already provided lessons in workload management which he will draw on as the next busy period looms.

"This was my first IPL year and it's long three months in India which can really stretch you, mentally more than anything," he said. "I would still like to play leagues when the opportunity comes along and next year there's a break after the IPL so there's some space in between.

"Once you get to the groove of playing a lot of cricket, it can be really nice when you're playing quite well but it can also be quite dark if you're not playing too well. It's more trying to manage the space mentally. That's probably the balance that I'm trying to walk at the moment."

Rickelton can already see the challenge of that task. Since being part of the squad that won the WTC final at Lord's in June, Rickelton has had six weeks off while Pretorius made his Test debut against Zimbabwe (and scored a century) and was moved around the T20I batting order from opening to No. 5 and back up.

"I haven't been hitting the ball too well these last couple of days but I'm not too worried. We've played a lot of cricket this year already and it's not something that you just lose full stop. It will take a few more sessions for me to get going," he said. "But I'm watching the rest of the guys, they're really hitting the ball quite nicely and you can see the guys that have been playing are moving a lot better than a few of the guys that have taken a little bit of time off."

All of that changes from this week when South Africa press play on what is set to be an important period as they build under all-format coach Shukri Conrad, with two ICC tournaments and a new WTC cycle ahead of them.

"If you look at the fixtures lined up for the T20 World Cup, we've got some big competition and some big rivals," Rickelton said. "If we can put a good foot forward and play quite well and match what we want to try and replicate in a few months' time, especially against quality opposition, that's really important to the team and the individuals as well. We spoke about it as a group, we have an opportunity to try and win a series in Australia, which doesn't come around that often, and we're looking forward to obviously cementing our own places and playing well for South Africa."