T20 Challenge stars missed in World Cup selection as they had to West Indies

OBAKENG MELETSE

THE Proteas will tour the West Indies in preparation for the Twenty20 World Cup amidst the controversy over the selection of the 15-man squad consisting of only one black African player.

Overlooked were several players who prior to the selection were plying their trade in the Cricket SA T20 Challenge. We take a look at the players who were close to selection but didn’t make the cut.

Rassie van der Dussen

The 35-year-old scored a healthy 328 runs with a strike rate of 147.75 in the SA20 and was among the best top 10 run-scorers in the T20 Challenge but he has struggled to convince Rob Walter that he’s worthy of a place in the World Cup squad.

The MI Cape Town batter was seen as the best white ball batter for most of South Africa’s rebuild following the retirements of key players AB de Villiers and JP Duminy to mention a few.

Andile Phehlukwayo

The Paarl Royals all-rounder had decent outings with ball and bat earlier in the season against India. A below par SA20, especially with the bat which only yielded 81 runs in 10 matches, and nine wickets at an economy rate of 9.31, saw what was a promise fail to reach the expected heights.

Phehlukwayo was named as one of CSA’s contracted players for the 2024/25 season, and with pressure coming from the likes of Patrick Kruger who is also on tour to the West Indies, he will need to quickly sort out his inconsistency.

Matthew Breetzke

The Warriors captain along with Ryan Rickelton were the most consistent batters in both the SA20 and the T20 Challenge. He finished as the top scorer in the T20 Challenge with 467 runs after 15 matches, following up his third place finish in the SA20, scoring 416 after 13 matches.

With the Eastern Cape side dismissive of all their opponents early in the T20 Challenge, Breetzke found the going a bit hard but peaked later in the tournament. At 25 years, Breetzke will be one to look out for in the future although his outside chance of the World Cup spot went up in smoke.

Lungi Ngidi

The Titans fast bowler recovered just in time from injury to be picked as a travelling reserve to the World Cup. With no game time guaranteed, Ngidi will be disappointed at the timing of his injury as not only did it cost him a place in the IPL with the Delhi Capitals, but it denied him an opportunity at more game time to stake his claim for a top-15 spot.

His eight matches in the T20 Challenge slowly saw his best form returning with his eight wickets helping the Titans to a semi final place in the tournament.

Wiaan Mulder

Mulder was the stand-out all-rounder in the T20 Challenge, and was unlucky to miss out on World Cup selection as he played a good hand in the Lions winning the competition. He needs a consistent run of form to topple the talented Marco Jansen at the top of the food chain and he has high potential to do so.