South Africa will hope to end their 27-year wait for an ICC trophy when they take on Australia in the WTC final.
Former Australia batter Matthew Hayden has predicted Tristan Stubbs to be South Africa’s X-factor player for the 2025 ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
South Africa and Australia will lock horns in the WTC final at Lord’s from June 11. The Proteas will look to end the 27-year ICC trophy drought, having last won in 1998 when they clinched the ICC KnockOut Trophy.
“Someone like Tristan Stubbs, I think, can be a bit of an X-factor. Similar to the way that Kevin Pietersen was in the England side against Australia, who can come out, start to dominate,” Matthew Hayden said on Star Sports.
Tristan Stubbs recently played in South Africa’s warm-up match against Zimbabweans wherein he scored 58 runs from 120 balls in the first innings. He batted at number five in that innings, a spot he has not batted so far in the longest format. However, it is likely that the 24-year-old could retain that number five spot for the World Test Championship final against Australia.
In the recently-concluded IPL 2025 season, Stubbs played for Delhi Capitals (DC) and accumulated 300 runs from 14 matches at a strike-rate of 150.75. Matthew Hayden reckons that Tristan Stubbs could be a threat for Australia because of his big-hitting abilities.
“We’ve seen his hitting ability through the IPLs. Not that that has a great deal of relevance, but he’s a very powerful unit. A very conventional hitter of the ball. Tall, big body position, and great hands that he can hit down the ground with. So he can be a threat,” explained the 53-year-old.
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Having made his Test debut in January 2024 against India, Tristan Stubbs has gone onto play nine Tests for South Africa. He has thus far aggregated 500 runs at an average of 41.47, scoring three half-centuries.
South Africa finished the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle in first place with a points percentage (PCT) of 69.44. Australia secured their place in the final during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India at home earlier this year. The Pat Cummins-led side finished in second place with a PCT of 67.54.
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