Women’s T20 World Cup 2026: South Africa and the pull of unfinished business

On May 11, South Africa was scheduled to announce its squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup to be played in England in June-July. Minutes before the scheduled online announcement was to go live, Cricket South Africa reportedly announced a postponement due to the need for further internal reviews.

Cue dramatic drumbeat.

In an era of major churn in the women’s game, the Proteas line-up, in its bid to finally secure maiden ICC silverware, has been closely watched. Australia’s cloak of invincibility seems to have slipped; New Zealand is undergoing a major transition, while India and England are still grappling with consistency.

In the 2023 T20 World Cup, Meg Lanning’s world-beating Australia could not be denied by a spirited Proteas outfit. Shabnim was part of the heartbroken squad that watched the Aussies collect their winners’ medals. Dane van Niekerk, part of the ICC commentary panel for the tournament after failing to make the squad, was equally desolate. The pair announced their retirement from the game, the former wanting more time for family, the latter disgruntled by her controversial exclusion on fitness grounds. Both expressed unhappiness with the erstwhile management on their way out.

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A spectacular collapse in the final deprived South Africa again in 2024, when Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, and Lea Tahuhu carried New Zealand to its maiden T20 crown. In the ODI showpiece nearly a year later, the Proteas made India sweat in the final but still fell short. There were not as many tears as before in the dugout. This side had grown accustomed to stumbling at the final hurdle and seemed more accepting than agitated by the outcome.

As fireworks lit up Navi Mumbai and India was crowned champion with much fanfare, then South African batting coach Baakier Abrahams came up to this reporter and exclaimed: “We’ve tried so hard to get it (the trophy). Maybe they just wanted it more!”

Cut to the present. A day later than intended, the Proteas management announced their team for the 2026 edition. Among the names read out by the convenor of selectors, Clinton du Preez, were Shabnim Ismail and Dane.

Trump card

At 37, Shabnim shows no signs of slowing down. Since her retirement in 2023, she has featured in 92 T20s and remains a regular face in franchise leagues around the world, including the Women’s Premier League. She played a crucial role in Mumbai Indians winning the 2025 title, the club’s second. She also regularly slotted back into her domestic sides, with her searing pace still confounding batters across competitions. Months after her retirement, she clocked the fastest delivery in the history of the women’s game, a 132 kmph scorcher.

A video released by Cricket South Africa shows her walking into frame at a training ground and sitting down before saying, “Hi! Guess who’s back!” with the widest smile anyone would have seen on her face recently, doing a remarkable job of masking the angst lingering from 2023.

“The loss to Australia was a bitter pill to swallow,” Shabnim said in a video on CSA’s socials. “We’ve done the hard yards throughout and made multiple finals. It’s all about that one element, and I don’t think it’s a skill issue. It’s more the mental part. I’ve been seeing some of the games and the finals that the girls have made. I don’t think this team really needs me, but it’s nice to be back and help this side win the World Cup. If we do, I’ll be saying happy retirement after that.”

Shabnim’s return could also ease the burden on Marizanne Kapp. Her all-round utility to the side often leaves too much of the rescue work resting on her shoulders. Frequent niggles have forced the management to handle her workload with extreme caution.

While Kapp now shares new-ball duties with the likes of Ayabonga Khaka and Tumi Sekhukhune, no pairing has come close to matching the intimidation factor of Kapp and Ismail. South Africa will count heavily on that combination, especially in England’s seam-friendly conditions.

Back from the margins

There was a time when Dane’s name was spoken in the same breath as Lanning, Heather Knight, and Harmanpreet Kaur, young captains galvanising their setups and teaching their sides new ways to raise the ceiling of ambition. A freak ankle injury pushed her to the sidelines and triggered a vicious cycle of weight gain and mental health struggles. Failing a two-kilometre time trial by 18 seconds and subsequently being dumped from the national side did not go down well with the all-rounder, who publicly took on CSA thereafter.

Still active in the franchise circuit, recurring injuries made a return to her peak nearly impossible. While the fear of being left behind was one issue, self-doubt proved the bigger monster for the former captain. The casualty ended up being her valuable leg-spin.

“It’s frustrating. Leg-spin is my life. With everything that transpired, a lot of confidence went with that. I was quite hard on myself. So the smallest bad ball would mean I convinced myself that I couldn’t bowl at all. It snowballed from there. The more bad balls I bowled, the more it felt like being under a magnifying glass. So I put it on the back burner a bit and focused on my batting to regain some confidence,” Dane told Sports stars.

The first South African woman to take 100 ODI wickets, incidentally during the 2017 World Cup qualifier, Dane eyed a route back into the side as a specialist batter.

After the 2024 World Cup, newly appointed head coach Mandla Mashimbyi adopted a less hardline approach to South Africa’s controversial fitness policy.

“Sometimes, the media and people can really make things look bigger than they really are. As long as a player can look like a cricketer, move like one, and think like one, I am happy,” he said when asked about Dane’s return from retirement in August 2025. She wore the South African crest for the first time in four years against Ireland last year and performed commendably in the middle order, scoring 62 runs in two games at just under 230, at times also thriving as a finisher.

The bitterness surrounding the spate of retirements had also torn the Proteas dressing room apart. Over the years, a new core has developed and younger leaders have emerged, but the scars from words exchanged in the past have not entirely vanished. Mashimbyi has been determined to leave the past behind and focus instead on players capable of delivering results.

A calf injury, followed by illness, sidelined Dane for South Africa’s white-ball tour of New Zealand and the home series against India, threatening her World Cup availability as well. Her inclusion in the squad also likely signals the end of the road for someone like Anneke Bosch, another specialist batter whose meagre returns appear to have exhausted the patience of the management.

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“She’s always been part of the plan for this World Cup,” Du Preez revealed. “She’s been working at the High Performance Centre (in Pretoria). Dane is a strategic decision within our batting lineup and brings stability and experience. She’s in good shape. Her leadership experience can also be valuable to this side,” he added.

The South African line-up flying to England represents perhaps the best blend of the old and new guard from the nation’s golden generation in women’s cricket. The strategic inclusions also underline a clear intent from the ecosystem to do everything possible to finish on the podium and make this side one of the tournament’s most compelling teams to follow.

Will England witness a long-awaited coronation, or will it be another chapter in the same hell loop for a nation still waiting for victory? A testing summer of cricket will decide.

Published on May 22, 2026