SA batting prodigy Lhuan-dre Pretorius on his way to IPL

Young South African batting star Lhuan-dre Pretorius has won himself a contract with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

The 19-year-old top-of-the-order batter lit up the 2025 edition of the SA20 while playing for the Paarl Royals earlier this year and he will now get a chance to show India, and the rest of the cricketing world, what he can do in the most lucrative and best T20 competition in the game.

Pretorius has been called up by the Royals as a replacement for the injury Nitish Rana, who is suffering from a calf injury.

In a post on X, the Rajasthan Royals called the young South African batter “fearless” and “power-packed”.

Pretorius was the leading batter in the SA20, with 397 runs in 12 matches and a highest score of 97. His strike rate was 166.8 while he hit an incredible 16 sixes and 47 fours (the highest) during the competition.

He also later shone in the SA domestic 4-day cup competition, scoring three centuries and a half century for the Titans. Pretorius was called up to the SA ‘A’ team recently and will tour to the West Indies later this month and in June.

Dewald Brevis on fire in IPL

Another star of the SA20, Dewald Brevis, who plays for MI Cape Town, also recently got a late call-up to join the IPL.

In mid-April the Chennai Super Kings asked the 21-year-old former SA U19 star to take up a position in their squad for the injured Gurjapneet Singh. There was talk at the time that the young batter would be paid just under R5 million for playing for CSK for the rest of the tournament.

Brevis previously played for the Mumbai Indians, following his exploits with the bat during the U19 Cricket World Cup.

In this year’s SA20, Brevis scored the sixth most number of runs (291 in 12 matches), while so far in the IPL, he has scored 126 runs in four matches with a strike rate of 166.