Rassie van der Dussen

A late bloomer in the international game, Rassie van der Dussen made his South Africa debut at 29 in a T20I against Zimbabwe. By then he had played domestic cricket in England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and the Caribbean, and had built a reputation as an attacking and reliable batter in the top and middle orders.

He was the top scorer in South Africa's first-class domestic competition in 2017-18, with close to a thousand runs. He had previous in this regard, having topped 1000 in 2012-13, and 900 in his very first season in first-class cricket, three years before that. He made his Test debut against England in December 2019. Two half-centuries in his first three innings and a 98 in the same series promised much but van der Dussen did not kick on. He played 18 Tests in three years, averaged 30.16 and was dropped during South Africa's tour of Australia.

Instead, it was in the ODI format that he blossomed. Van der Dussen was part of South Africa's 2019 World Cup campaign and scored three fifties in that tournament. His first century came against Pakistan in 2021, by which time he was an established member of the team. He hit two hundreds in the next World Cup, and went on to hold the second-highest average by a South African in the format, a touch over 50, only behind AB de Villiers.

The highlights of van der Dussen's franchise T20 career include being an integral part of the Vancouver Knights team that won the 2018 Global T20 Canada, topping the run-scorers table in the 2018 Mzansi Super League, being among the top five scorers in the 2024 PSL, and being the second-highest run-scorer in the SA20 in 2025 for title winners MI Cape Town.

As a senior member of the white-ball sides, van der Dussen's leadership was recognised when he was asked to stand in as South Africa's captain in a T20 series against West Indies in May 2024 and again for a tri-series in Zimbabwe in July 2025.