Shukri Conrad explains rationale behind Rassie van der Dussen snub

The T20 squad sees the return of David Miller and Keshav Maharaj, while Kwena Maphaka has been retained in the ODI squad as cover for injured Kagiso Rabada.

Coach Shukri Conrad has explained that the omission does not mean the door is closed on international cricket for either van de Dussen or any other senior player, but rather to give as much of the upcoming youngsters as possible experience ahead of the 2027 World Cup.

"Any decision to leave a player out that's got a record like Rassie and I'm pretty sure you speak of the ODI space, I think the big thing for me and I made it pretty clear to some of the older guys like Rassie and David, who's the other omission you'll see out of the ODI squad is, I wanna see after the T20 Word Cup where we're at,” Conrad said.

“Then obviously with these guys look at what the next year could look like. I don't wanna get into a situation where we get to late 2026, early 2027 depending on when the World Cup is and you find that some of the older guys are not gonna make it due to either form or fitness.

“And then I've lost an opportunity to play quite a few youngsters and then you sit with a very inexperienced bunch. So, I'm certainly not discarding any of the older guys but I see this as a great opportunity whilst we've got time on our hands to afford a lot of our younger guys playing time and for them to gain the necessary experience."

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Conrad says he does not want to restrict those young players too much in the period between now and the World Cup, and wants to afford them enough time to make their own mistakes and learn on the job.

"You want to encourage them to double down on what they do particularly well and a lot of the time they learn on the job and this is why when I say I want to afford a lot of these youngsters an opportunity so that when the World Cup does come we've got young players who've got 10 and 15 and 20 ODI caps, rather than five and six,” the coach added.

“But yeah, again to answer your question, constantly talking to them, what it looks like to them, what they've learnt from every innings but every turn encouraging them to take the game on."