Delhi: South African cricket selectors have announced their 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024. For the first time, left-handed explosive wicketkeeper batsman Ryan Rickleton and star fast bowler Otniel Bartman have been included in the national team squad. Both have benefited from their stellar performances in this year's SA20 tournament and are uncapped T20I players in the team.

Rickleton was the tournament's leading run-scorer for MI Cape Town with 530 runs at an average of 58.88 and a strike rate of 173.77, while Bartman took 18 wickets in 8 matches for defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Rickleton's batting style is exactly similar to Quinton de Kock. He is known for hitting sixes. According to reports, he is also called De Kock 2.0 in South Africa.

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Apart from him, the Proteas team has a strong batting order in the form of captain Aiden Markram, veteran wicketkeeper batsman Quinton de Kock, star opener Reeza Hendricks, explosive wicketkeeper batsman Heinrich Klaasen, match finisher David Miller and young sensation Tristan Stubbs.

If we talk about fast bowling, fast bowler Enrique Norkhia has also been included in the green jersey team. Apart from this, the responsibility of pace battery will be with Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee, while Bjorn Fortuyn, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi will be the frontline spinners.

It is noteworthy that opening batsman Temba Bavuma has not been included in the South African team for the ICC T20 World Cup this time. In such a situation, Markram has been entrusted with the responsibility of captaincy. Earlier, Bavuma had captained the South African team in a major tournament in the ICC World Cup 2023. Questions have been raised many times over his slow batting in T20I, hence this time Temba has been kept out.