South Africa Cricket Team News & Matches
Captain: Temba Bavuma (Tests, ODIs), Aiden Markram (T20Is)
Coaches: Shukri Conrad (Tests), Ashwell Prince (Test batting coach), Piet Botha (Test bowling coach), JP Duminy (white-ball batting coach), Eric Simons (white-ball bowling coach)
First international match: 1889
Cricket board: Cricket South Africa (CSA)
ICC titles: 2
South Africa Men’s Cricket Team History
South Africa were the third country to play international cricket after England and Australia, in 1889, but had a tough start. It was 17 years before they won a Test and almost 70 before they were regularly beating their opposition. The mid to late 1960s, a time when Graeme Pollock, Eddie Barlow, Mike Procter and Ali Bacher were in action, marked a first golden age, albeit one that excluded South Africa’s majority population.
South Africa was isolated for two decades on account of apartheid, and when they returned to cricket in 1991, the game had expanded and changed to include white-ball cricket. South Africa soon proved a competitive force in shorter formats and have reached five ODI World Cup and two T20 World Cup semi-finals, but are yet to win either title.
Their biggest successes have been in Tests, in which they were undefeated in away series from 2007 to 2015 – towards the end of which period they became the the No. 1-ranked side in the world. In 2012, Hashim Amla became the first South African to hit a Test triple-century as South Africa beat England in England – the high-water mark of Graeme Smith’s captaincy.
Smith is the most successful Test captain in history, with more wins (53) than any other, while Jacques Kallis is among the game’s greatest allrounders, having made more than 10,000 Test runs and taken over 250 wickets in both Tests and ODIs.
South Africa have always had a strong fast-bowling core, from the time of Shaun Pollock to Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada. And in the 21st century they produced a batter who revolutionised the craft with his 360-degree approach to strokeplay: AB de Villiers.
On-field success came against the background of administrative turmoil in the 2000s. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, CSA circled through several CEOs, and a painful Social Justice and Nation-Building process, to better understand the impact of racism and discrimination on the game. A target system remains in place in order to achieve a more representative team.
In 2025, they laid to rest decades of heartbreak in ICC white-ball knockouts, winning the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s.
South Africa Men’s Cricket Team Current Ranking
Tests: 2
ODIs: 5
T20Is: 6
South Africa Men’s Cricket Team Records
Tests: Most runs | Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
ODIs: Most runs | Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
T20Is: Most runs | Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
South Africa Men’s Cricket Team Trophies and Milestones
1906: First Test match win, Johannesburg and Test series win
1932: First away Test series win, New Zealand
1991: First international match after readmission to international cricket following ban for apartheid, Kolkata
1998: ICC Knockout Trophy (Champions Trophy) win, Dhaka
2012: Ranked No. 1 in all three formats
2025: World Test Championship final win, Lord’s
South Africa Squad
- Aiden Markram
- David Bedingham
- Corbin Bosch
- Dewald Brevis
- Tony de Zorzi
- Simon Harmer
- Marco Jansen
- Wiaan Mulder
- Senuran Muthusamy
- Kagiso Rabada
- Ryan Rickelton
- Tristan Stubbs
- Prenelan Subrayen
- Kyle Verreynne
- Zubayr Hamza
Pakistan Cricket Team News & Matches
Captains: Shan Masood (Test), Mohammad Rizwan (ODI), Salman Agha (T20I)
Coaches: Azhar Mahmood (Test head coach), Mike Hesson (white-ball coach), Shane McDermott (fielding coach)
First international match: 1952
Cricket board: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)
ICC titles: 3Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team History
Cricket in Pakistan was a colonial hand-me-down, and when India and Pakistan obtained independence in 1947, much of the sport’s infrastructure in Pakistan was inherited from what had been left there pre-independence. They won their second Test, against India in 1952, but it was a famous upset at The Oval in 1954 that imprinted Pakistan on cricket’s consciousness.
Pakistan’s players from that era, particularly their first captain, Abdul Hafeez Kardar, fast bowler Fazal Mahmood and batter Hanif Mohammad, remain some of their most famous cricketers. But it was in the 1980s, with the arrival of perhaps Pakistan’s finest Test team, that the country’s cricket truly went global. Their captain and perhaps greatest ever player, Imran Khan, led the team to the 1992 World Cup title in his farewell tournament.
The ’90s marked a thrilling yet controversial time. It was the age where Pakistan’s fast bowling was truly the gold standard, with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis among the finest exponents of pace and swing, while Shoaib Akhtar was the fastest bowler in the world. Pakistan would reach the 1999 World Cup final. But allegations of match-fixing dogged that side, culminating in six players, including Wasim and Waqar, censured for varying anti-corruption offences, while Salim Malik was banned for life. Ten years later, three further players would be banned for spot-fixing and serve prison time in England.
Pakistan’s results have swung from one extreme to the other. Two early World Cup exits in 2003 and 2007 were followed by winning the 2009 T20 World Cup, and, eight years later, beating arch-rivals India in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy. They became the top-ranked Test side in 2016, and while consistency remains elusive both at cricketing and board level, Pakistan remain one of the most exciting cricket teams to follow.Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team Current Ranking
Tests: 7
ODIs: 5
T20Is: 7Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team Records
Tests: Most runs | Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
ODIs: Most runs | Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
T20Is: Most runs | Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totalsPakistan Cricket Team Trophies and Milestones
1952: First Test match win, Lucknow
1954: First Test win in England, The Oval
1955: First home Test match win, Karachi and first Test series win, New Zealand
1986: Austral-Asia Cup win, Sharjah
1989: Nehru Cup win, Kolkata
1992: ODI World Cup win, Melbourne
2009: T20 World Cup win, Lord’s
2017: Champions Trophy win, The OvalPakistan Squad
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