Unlucky losers: Six Proteas players who missed out on T20 World Cup squad

The Proteas 15-man T20 World Cup squad was named earlier this week, with a strong group selected to challenge for the title in the West Indies and the USA.

Limited overs coach Rob Walter admitted it had been a tough choice picking the squad, but he claimed he had selected the best players to give them the best possible chance of lifting the trophy at the end of the tournament.

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Despite that there were a number of talking points around the squad, with some players surprisingly left out, while others deservedly missed out on the trip.

Here are our picks of players who were unfortunate or deserved to miss out on selection:  

Unlucky to miss out

Matthew Breetzke

The opening batter has been in superb T20 form over the past couple of seasons and he is extremely unlucky not to get the nod for the World Cup.

Breetzke made his Proteas T20I debut against Australia in September last year and last played against India in December. His form in this season’s SA20, where he ended as the third highest run scorer, and in the CSA T20 Challenge, where he finished top, was sublime and he will be disappointed to miss out on the showpiece event.

Rassie van der Dussen

The Proteas stalwart has never really been a T20 regular for the national side, although he has played in 43 T20I matches so far. But he has been in magnificent form over the past season, excelling in the SA20 and CSA T20 Challenge, while he was mightily impressive in the Pakistan Super League, which pushed his case for inclusion.

However with the amount of big hitting talent that the Proteas possess, Van Der Dussen’s penchant to start his innings slowly likely counted against him.

Lungi Ngidi

The burly fast bowler has been a T20 star for the Proteas over the years but just misses out on selection for the World Cup. Injury arguably put paid to his chances of making the squad, with him choosing to miss the IPL to work on his fitness in the CSA T20 Challenge, but that wasn’t enough to make the final group, although he has been selected as a traveling reserve.

Ngidi’s batting may also have counted against him, with a player like Gerald Coetzee preferred as a lower order slugger.

Deserved to miss out

Temba Bavuma

The current Proteas Test captain and former T20 captain has finally seen his time run out in the national T20 team. He received a lot of criticism over the past few years for his underperformance in the format, while keeping an in-form Reeza Hendricks out of the side.

Bavuma is still a vital member of the Proteas Test and ODI sides, but he is just not really suited to T20 cricket, as is evidenced by his average form in the CSA T20 Challenge and his lack of game time in the SA20.

Dewald Brevis

Since bursting onto the scene with a brilliant showing at the 2022 U19 Cricket World Cup, a lot of expectations have been placed on the young batter. The comparisons made with former Proteas legend AB De Villiers have also not helped him, and with him immediately brought into the IPL as a 19-year-old, his star was expected to rise.

However he has not been able to meet those lofty expectations and hopefully they will be tempered a bit now and allow him to grow.

Faf du Plessis

The former Proteas captain has kept himself available for the shorter formats (which he last played in 2019), since retiring from Test cricket in 2021. He has been in superb form in the IPL in recent seasons and had a fantastic inaugural campaign in the SA20.

But since undergoing surgery on an elbow injury halfway through 2023 Du Plessis has been unable to rediscover his best form which ended any chance of him making it back into the Proteas mix.