Shamsi opted out of the national contract in October last year.
South Africa have an interesting set of spinners for T20Is at the moment. They have Keshav Maharaj and George Linde, who will likely be in the T20 World Cup 2026, while the team is investing in Nqabayomzi Peter and Prenelan Subrayen. Tabraiz Shamsi has not played since the T20 World Cup final last year.
Shamsi opted out of the national contract in October and has been playing in various T20 leagues. Currently, he is in the West Indies for the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), where he is playing for Saint Lucia Kings. He has been in exceptional form and stands sixth on the leading wicket-takers list.
As mentioned above, South Africa are trying to use other names as they build for the T20 World Cup. However, all of them are finger spinners, barring Peter, who might not make the cut. Hence, South Africa will need a solid wrist spinner who has the wicket-taking ability, and Shamsi ticks the box.
Shamsi has been South Africa’s leading wicket-taker, with 89 wickets at an average of 20.89 in 70 innings, including a four-wicket haul. He has been pivotal to Proteas’ white-ball plans in recent years. Since opting out of the national contract, he has been in exceptional form and taking wickets in bunches.
This year, he has 15 wickets at an average of 24.33 and a strike rate of 18.40 in 46 innings, including a best of 3/12. He brings a unique left-arm angle, and his balls zip through the surface since he bowls at a high pace. That makes him lethal, especially against teams vulnerable to slow bowling.
While Shamsi is a wicket-taker, he can often concede plenty and mostly finds success against lower-ranked teams. His T20I career has mostly been successful when playing against teams susceptible to spin. That has been a constant trend.
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For instance, Shamsi has 41 wickets at an average of 27 and a strike rate of 20.58 in 41 innings, including a five-wicket haul, against top-six ranked T20I teams. Meanwhile, he has 48 wickets at 15.68 runs apiece in 29 outings against teams below the top six. So, Shamsi’s effectiveness can go down against better players of spin.
The problem is that when Shamsi plays against not-so-good-against-spin teams, he does so well that dropping him becomes arduous. The same happened during the T20 World Cup 2024, as he bowled terrific spells against the West Indies and Afghanistan, leading up to the final. However, he remained underwhelming and went wicketless in the summit clash.
While the Proteas might be forced to bring in Tabraiz Shamsi for the T20 World Cup 2026, they can still use him wisely. The format of the tournament means big-nation teams will have a few matches against lower-ranked sides, at least in the group stage. Hence, South Africa can employ him against those teams, for his numbers are solid against them.
This can be hard for the management, but they must have noticed the pattern too. Whenever they play against teams with better spin handlers, South Africa can bring an additional finger spinner. Whoever comes in the XI will have more batting value and add depth, another reason to avoid Shamsi. So, even if the wicket-taking value goes away a bit, South Africa get more batting options to compensate. Shamsi should be strictly limited to playing against teams struggling against fast wrist-spin, and most lower-ranked sides fall in this category, given their less exposure to such bowlers.
But he still remains one of their best options in the wrist-spin category. Nqabayomzi Peter will get his chances, but with a subcontinent T20 World Cup, the idea should be to back someone who has previous experience and is in good form. There are still a few months left, and South Africa should recall Shamsi for crucial assignments before the event.
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