Ryan Rickelton is in incredible form in the SA20, hitting two blistering fifties in four innings. But with South Africa playing Tony de Zorzi in recent games alongside Temba Bavuma at the top, we look into why Rickelton needs to start for South Africa in the Champions Trophy 2025.
South Africa had a magnificent run in the Cricket World Cup 2023 before they lost the semi-final against the eventual champions Australia. The Proteas men reached the final of the T20 World Cup the following year but suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final to India.
The upcoming Champions Trophy, starting February 19, is one more chance for this generation of South African stars to add an ICC trophy to their cabinet. The Temba Bavuma-led side will have 10 players that featured in the ODI World Cup available for this tournament.
South Africa have multiple challenges in front of them for the Champions Trophy, fitness and form of fast bowlers being the main concern. Another question that’s staring at them is what could be their ideal batting combination for the tournament set to be played in Pakistan and the UAE.
The 28-year-old batter is in the form of his life, recently smashing a double century in the Cape Town Test against Pakistan and carrying that into the SA20. Missing three games due to a hamstring injury and illness has not affected his form one bit.
Rickelton, a vital part of the MI Cape Town set-up, has scored 178 runs from four innings at a strike rate of 183. He smashed 89 off 39 against Joburg Super Kings earlier and 63 off 41 versus Durban’s Super Giants on Saturday. Rickelton had a blockbuster SA20 season last year as well, piling on 530 runs at 173.77 while averaging 58.88.
Since Quinton de Kock retired, South Africa have struggled to find a reliable opener to partner Bavuma. Tony de Zorzi started well with an unbeaten century and 81 in December 2023 against India’s second string attack but has failed to cross the 35-run mark in the last seven innings.
Rickelton, in his four opportunities as an opener, has made 171 runs at a strike rate of 93. Moreover, he has a proven List A record with 46 average and 90 strike rate with a good volume of over 3000 runs.
Rickelton, who is set to represent Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2025, has a similar game to de Kock but is an even better player of spin. As a batter on pure technicalities, he offers much more and fits into the South African set-up perfectly.
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Looking at the squad South Africa have announced for the event, there are multiple ways they could shape their batting line-up. There is a possibility, two of their best batters – Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs could be benched in favour of de Zorzi and Rassie van der Dussen.
There have also been talks of Aiden Markram moving up the order to accommodate Stubbs in the middle order. This seems to be a much harder work around than the more practical decisions they could make.
As mentioned earlier, de Zorzi’s numbers in his recent ODIs don’t look promising. Rassie van der Dussen has been their designated number three for a while but his returns in the fifty-over format since the CWC 2023 have been horrible. The 36-year-old batter has scored only 142 runs from nine innings at an average of less than 15.
Leaving out these two, South Africa could form a top 7 of Rickelton, Bavuma, Markram, Stubbs, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen in the Champions Trophy. This could be just as menacing a batting line-up as they had at the 2023 event.
