Image Credit- SA20
Both Ryan Rickelton and Rassie van der Dussen, who
were passed over for important series in the recent past, are optimistic that
the SA20 will act as a springboard for national selection.
At the SA20, the two have started off well. Rickelton
tops the run charts after two games with scores of 87 and 98, while van der
Dussen crushed a fifty-ball 104 over the weekend. Van der Dussen reminded us of
his abilities in this format, particularly as an opener, with his fourth T20
century—his first in ten years.
“There’s a T20 World Cup later this year and I
want to be in a position to hopefully put in strong performances for
that,” van der Dussen, who has only played two T20Is since August 2022,
said after his hundred in Johannesburg. “The last few series, I haven’t
been playing and there’ve been some guys who have played really well. The last
time I played was against Australia where I got one or two starts but I did not
really convert. I am realistic in the sense that maybe my international T20
numbers in the last year or two, albeit not being bad, haven’t shot the lights
out.”
Van der Dussen has only managed one century and one
hundred and thirty runs in his last seven Twenty20 Internationals. Prior to
that, he amassed 1008 runs in 32 Twenty20 International innings at a strike
rate of 132.80 and an average of 42.00. He feels such kind of performance might
push him into the national team.
White-ball coach Rob Walter stated he will use the
SA20 and other leagues to select his final XV, and van der Dussen has, to the
best of his ability, lined up the tournaments he will use as auditions. This is
because there are no T20Is before South Africa names their squad to travel to
the West Indies, where they will play three matches before the World Cup
begins.
“I have this SA20, then I am going to PSL and
then we have domestic CSA T20, so it’s going to be three to four months of T20
cricket and I can really focus on that,” he said. “As a player all
you can really do is put on the performances and put the numbers on the board.
I am not special, I am not above anyone else. If it’s going to be a shoot out
but if they are going to select performances, then your name needs to be up
there.”