Laura Wolvaardt of South Africa leads out her team to field during an ICC Women's T20 World Cup Group A match. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Laura Wolvaardt of South Africa leads out her team to field during an ICC Women's T20 World Cup Group A match. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
South Africa will hope to break the chain of misfortune it has been facing in ICC tournaments when it plays the 2026 edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup in England.
The Proteas have reached the final of the T20 showpiece for the past two editions but have failed to lift the title. The Laura Wolvaardt-led team would like to wish it’d be third time lucky for it, but it will need to break out of a group which has Australia and India.
Here’s a look at the 15-member South Africa squad playing in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026:
The 27-year-old has been an incredible captain to the Proteas ever since taking the armband in 2023 across formats. While she hasn’t had the rub of the green, having lost the last two World Cup finals (T20 and ODI) while leading the side, Wolvaardt is invaluable to the side as its elegant, yet explosive batter at the top. Her 2026 season has been loaded with runs, including four half-centuries and a century against India in the recent bilateral series.
Brits has had a sporting journey which demands to be told time and again. Cricket was not her first choice. It was javelin throw. And she was so good at throwing the spear that she was a bronze medallist at bronze at the World Junior Championship in 2010, and she had even cracked the qualification mark for the 2012 Olympics. However, tragedy struck in the form of a car crash which threatened to end her sporting dreams, leaving her with a broken pelvis, a dislocated hip, a torn colon, a punctured bladder, and plenty of internal bleeding.
But support from her closed ones and her own persistence helped Brits recover and return to cricket, a sport that wasn’t entirely unknown to her. Since this decision, she’s been a big-hitter for the Proteas at the top order. Last year, she even became the first woman to score five ODI centuries in a single year.
If you hear the stump mics picking up randome murmurs while de Klerk is on strike, don’t worry. It’s just her way of calming the nerves which eventually come with the job of finishing the game. But she’s taken to the role like a fish to water, as seen in last year’s ODI World Cup. Against India in the league stage, especially, her blistering unbeaten knock of 84 off 54 showed the world that she indeed welcomes the pressure that comes with World Cups and thrives in it. Something similar can be expected from the all-rounder, who can even snare some wickets with the ball.
Although a newer face in the Proteas set-up, Dercksen has become a mainstay in that dressing room. Having grown up in the Beaufort-Wes area, she initially bowled spin. Later, she began bowling pace and also turned into a dependable all-rounder for South Africa. This was apparent when she became the first from the country to bag the ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year award in 2024.
In 38 matches, the 25-year-old has amassed 470 runs at a strike rate of over 124. With the ball, she’s not been as effective, scalping just eight wickets in the 41 overs she’s bowled in 38 matches. Dercksen provided a glimpse of what she’s capable of during the ongoing World Cup when she smashed a 35-ball 52 against Pakistan.
The veteran pace ace made a U-turn and reversed her decision to retire from international cricket, one that was taken back in 2023. Now, in the T20 World Cup squad, she’s back pulling the strings with the new ball alongside partner-in-crime Marizanne Kapp.
While her current speeds may not be providing the heat in the PowerPlay any more — she’s the owner of the fastest-ever delivery recorded in women’s cricket (132.1 km/h) in 2025 — the 37-year-old still has the goods to make an impact, as seen against Pakistan in the World Cup where she finished with 1/15 in four overs.
The ever-dependable pair of hands behind the stumps, Jafta has been a mainstay of this South Africa team. While runs haven’t exactly flowed from her bat — 171 runs in 25 innings — Jafta maintains a healthy strike rate of 130 in the shortest format.
More than her performance, it’s her story of grit and perseverance that stands out and makes people take notice. In 2022, she checked into an alcohol rehabilitation facility to battle addiction. Then less than a year later, she was part of the Proteas team which reached the final of the T20 World Cup.
Thanks to her efforts, India ‘Kapp’itulated against South Africa in the group stage of the ongoing World Cup to keep the Proteas in the race for a semifinals. Kapp remains one of the key figures for this team, both with bat and ball, as seen in her unbeaten 81 and two wickets against the Women in Blue.
The 36-year-old, over a 17-year career so far, has amassed more than 1700 runs in 123 matches and is one short of a 100 wickets in the shortest format.
Apart from being a prolific cricketer who keeps redefining the game with every knock and spell, she has represented the Eastern Province in netball and athletics. Moreover, she also holds a degree in sports management.
Another one who’s been South Africa’s pace ace for years now, Khaka’s cricketing journey began when she was just seven in Middledrift. She made her international debut back in 2012 and has since taken more 150 wickets in ODIs. In the shortest format, she has taken 78 scalps in 86 matches.
Moreover in 2024, Khaka became the first Black African women to play a century of ODIs for the country. In that year’s T20 World Cup, she also took four wickets in six innings with an economy of 6.23 as the side reached the summit clash.
The 30-year-old spin-bowling all-rounder might not be the first name that pops into one’s mind while talking about the South African team, but she has certainly been a key figure of the Proteas and their purple patch in the last few years.
Having made her international debut at just 16, she was initially a leg spinner. But due to issues with injuries stemming from her action, she switched to off spin. In ODIs, she’s the holder of many a record. In 2016, she bagged 37 wickets in the format, equalling Anisa Mohammed’s record for most scalps in a calendar year. Moreover, she’s the only woman with two six-wicket hauls in her name.
Her leadership skills too have been there for the public eye to see after she was named captain for the 2023 T20 World Cup. And it was under her that the side reached the final.
The 18-year-old wicketkeeper-batter is just eight matches old in the shortest format. She was part of the South Africa team in the 2023 Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, where she even played a few matches. At just 16, she’d received her maiden senior team call-up.
The left-arm spinner made her international debut against India in 2019 in Surat, the same match which also saw a 15-year-old Shafali Verma take her maiden bow in international cricket. Since then, Mlaba has rapidly risen through the ranks, reaching 100 international wickets even before turning 25.
Mlaba didn’t always start as a tweaker, pace was her first attack of choice with a ball. However even before cricket consumed most of her time, her first passion was dancing, more particularly Pantsula, a traditional dancing style from where she’s from.
But when she locked into cricket, she didn’t take long to become a serious threat for opposition batters, amassing 75 wickets in 78 innings in the shortest format. Moreover, she was also the second-highest wicket-taker in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup with 12 scalps.
The 20-year-old batting all-rounder captained South Africa in last year’s U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup and led from the front with 11 wickets. Her team might have fallen short against eventual champion India in the final, Reyneke did make her debuts across white-ball formats earlier this year.
Interestingly, she had an ODI debut to remember, helping the Proteas clinch the opening game of a three-match series against New Zealand in March with a six on the last ball.
The 27-year-old is another consistent pacer in the Proteas’ attack, at least whenever she’s available. Her career, ever since she debuted in 2018, has been marred by injuries. Still, she has taken 47 wickets in 42 innings and more often than not, she’s used as a second-change bowler which shows her control and prowess in the middle overs.
Tryon can be considered as someone who has the solution to almost every tricky situation in the game. Want a breakthrough when your usual bowlers are not firing? Done. Want someone to slog down the order when you need some quick runs? Also done.
A veteran of 117 ODIs and 113 T20Is, the left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder has been a crucial part of both of South Africa’s recent runs to the final – in the home T20 World Cup in 2023 and the next edition in 2024 in the UAE.
The 33-year-old has returned to the South African set-up a year after she revoked her international retirement ahead of the 2025 ODI World Cup. While she wasn’t included in that team, the Proteas will be happy to have someone of her experience around the dressing room.
The former South Africa captain had announced her international retirement in March 2023 after she couldn’t find a place in the team for the home T20 World Cup due to poor fitness standards.
While she doesn’t really bowl anymore, the leg spinner has accounted for 65 wickets in 82 innings in the shortest format, with a miserly economy of 5.45. With the bat, she’s amassed 1958 runs.
Published on Jun 26, 2026
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