As time ticks into the future, cricket is becoming commercialized. The emergence of a plethora of leagues has left cricket fans awestruck with the amount of action they can witness on such different platforms. One such league, the SA20 based in South Africa has attracted many fans since all of its franchise owners are also owners of the IPL Teams. This league had its inaugural season in the year 2022-23 and Sunrisers Eastern Cape came victorious under the leadership of Aiden Markram.
Recently, all of the SA20 franchises announced their retentions for the upcoming auctions. One can say a few of these are drafts, even. Some new additions to the SA20 frame have sparked more interest, so we are going to analyze the SA20 Retentions for the next season in the order of the points table of the previous season.
Pretoria Capitals:
The runner-ups of the season to start, they topped the points table. Consistently dominating the tournament from head to toe but stumbled at the final hurdle. Nonetheless, they should be very happy with how their season turned out to be, considering that this was the inaugural season. Let’s have a look at the SA20 Retentions by PC
Retained Players: Anrich Nortje, Migael Pretorius, Jimmy Neesham (overseas).
Pretoria Capitals have got a good pace attack with this. The deadly pacer Nortje is expected to lead the pace. Migael Pretorius is a bowling all-rounder who delivers medium pace and has done decently well. Possibly, the Pretoria Capitals management saw something in him because of which they decided to back him.
Jimmy Neesham on the other hand, is a blackcap all-rounder, who can bat at the lower order to provide a lot of depth to the batting and bowl pace too. He’s regarded as one of the most underrated all-rounders in recent times at the very least.
It’s a big surprise to SA20 watchers that Pretoria Capitals haven’t retained Will Jacks
Still, Pretoria Capitals need to work on a lot in the auctions, basically redoing their team to buy spinners, wicketkeepers, and batters who can stabilize the rest of the order.
Jo’Burg Super Kings:
The reunion of Faf Du Plessis the skipper to the Super Kings legacy made this easily a popular team among the IPL (and most importantly CSK) fanatics. Though they did have a lot of shortcomings they managed to barge into the playoffs at the second spot.
Retained Players: Faf Du Plessis, Gerald Coetzee, Moeen Ali (overseas), David Wiese (overseas), Zahir Khan (overseas), Sam Cook (overseas)
Players like Mahesh Theekshana, Leus Du Plooy, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, and so on haven’t been retained. Maybe the Super Kings have other plans.
Faf Du Plessis is an obvious retention, scored a century in this league, and is also the captain of the team. Gerald Coetzee is not a surprise either since he was very good considering the bouncy conditions of the Wanderers. Cricket watchers can see that Coetzee might have a good future in terms of SA Cricket.
Moeen Ali, who’s also a player of the CSK team has been signed for the coming season. He could bat at the top order, complementing Faf Du Plessis’ attacking approach with some support from the other end, and also bowl some tricky offices to deceptively take wickets
David Wiese is an extravagantly potent all-around player who could smash the ball for some powerful hits and also pick up wickets. He’s another player who’s prominent in many T20 leagues across the world and hence his experience in this particular format could come to fruition
Zahir Khan is a young left-arm leg spinner from Afghanistan. His left-arm bowling brings a different angle to the table, adding to the fact that he bowls leg spin. He may be looked at as a replacement for Mahesh Theekshana
Last but not least, Sam Cook bowls medium pace and swings the ball both ways. Has plenty of county cricket experience with close to 200 T20 wickets. He also was awarded the Player of the Match award in the Finals of the Hundred
JSK looks like they have a nice core around which they could further construct their team. It’s expected they buy back some of their former players in the auctions if they’re available, as the Super Kings franchise is known to persist with a similar core. Only time will answer this
Sunrisers Eastern Cape:
“We are the champions!”
This would be a song running through their head after their maiden successful campaign. Not many would’ve anticipated this win from the Sunrisers, but they made it all the way. Here’s a peek at their SA20 Retentions.
Retained Players: Aiden Markram, Ottniel Baartman, Liam Dawson (overseas), Dawid Malan (overseas)
The Sunrisers have retained their captain and seamer who are Markram and Baartman respectively.
The overseas picks are the Englishmen Liam Dawson and Dawid Malan, a left-arm spinner and a batter respectively.
Notably, Dawid Malan has been at the top of the ICC rankings among T20i batters. Liam Dawson on the other hand can also bat. He’s the youngest player to score a century for Hamilton in County cricket
With four players to start, Sunrisers Eastern Cape will have a good amount of purse along with Pretoria Capitals to make it to good use in the auctions. They’ll certainly look for a two-in-a-row next season.
Also Read: The Significance of Shaheen Shah Afridi’s Milestone: 100 Test Wickets
Paarl Royals:
The counterpart of the Rajasthan Royals! The Paarl Royals have had a fairly good season, making it to the SA20 Playoffs.
Retained Players: David Miller, Corbin Bosch, Jos Buttler (overseas), Obed McCoy (overseas)
As if it wasn’t obvious already, Skipper David Miller who’s a left-handed powerhouse stays in Paarl Royals. Accompanying him is Jos Buttler, the England captain who won a T20 World Cup for England. Also playing the role of a gun opener in Rajasthan Royals, Buttler adds up to make Paarl a stronger batting unit
Obed McCoy who’s also a Rajasthan Royals player missed out of the inaugural season due to injury. Hopefully, he would play in the second season.
Corbin Bosch, who’s also an all-rounder will look forward to making his mark next season
Durban Super Giants:
They’ve retained the most number of players (six) along with MI Cape Town and Jo’Burg Super Kings for the upcoming season. Their core looks pretty good, let’s take a look at their SA20 Retentions
Retained Players: Quinton De Kock, Prenelan Subrayen, Keshav Maharaj, Kyle Mayers (overseas), Naveen Ul-Haq (overseas), Reece Topley (overseas), Bhanuka Rajapaksa
As we can see, the core is very strong. Quinton De Kock and Kyle Mayers are the trademark opening duo, with Bhanuka Rajapaksa to fuel the batting. Reece Topley stays with the Super Giants, and Naveen Ul-Haq is a good addition who could be used as a death bowler. Prenalan Subrayen is a South African spinner.
It’s officially announced that Keshav Maharaj will be the captain of the Durban Super Giants next season, succeeding Quinton De Kock who was leading the pack before
MI Cape Town:
The team which had the most disappointing season despite having the best team on paper. That’s right, it’s MI Cape Town. They, unfortunately, ended up at the bottom of the table, but this can be seen as an opportunity for them to recalibrate. Hence, their SA20 Retentions can be seen as the first step taken.
Retained Players: Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis, Rashid Khan (overseas), Sam Curran (overseas), Liam Livingstone (overseas), Tom Banton (overseas).
MICT has backed a proper core despite having a terrible season. Kagiso Rabada and Sam Curran, are expected to flaunt their degrees of threatening pace and swing; Liam Livingstone, the brute force hitter; Rashid Khan, the skipper with an iron wrist; Tom Banton who’s a good technical batter; last but not the least, Dewald Brevis, the generational talent.
On paper, they do look pretty exhilarating, but they’d make corrections in the on-field performance. Rashid Khan will continue as captain
Conclusively, the SA20 teams have brought out their best-planned cores according to their tactics in the SA20 Retentions. Onto the exciting auctions of the next season, both talent and experience to fine-tune from! Till then, signing off…
