South Africa have been dealt with a big blow ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. Their star all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been ruled out of the ICC event after suffering a fracture to his left thumb during the recently-concluded third T20I against India.
Pretorius will also miss the three ODIs versus India due to same injury. “All-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been ruled out of the three-match ODI series against India and the proceeding ICC Men’s T20 World Cup due to a fracture of his left thumb,” Cricket South Africa, the country’s governing body for the sport, captioned their post on social media.
#PROTEAS SQUAD UPDATE 🚨
All-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been ruled out of the three-match ODI series against India and the proceeding ICC Men’s T20 World Cup due to a fracture of his left thumb.#BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/SZqvx0x5Ro
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) October 6, 2022
In his place, left-arm pacer Marco Jansen will join the squad for the India ODIs while the replacement for T20 World Cup is yet to be announced.
South Africa will begin their campaign at the marquee event against the topper of Group B in the first round on October 24.
The Temba Bavuma-led side recently faced a 1-2 T20I series defeat at the hands of India. In the first match, the tourists were blanked in Thiruvananthapuram as the game turned out to be a one-sided affair. Indian pacers rattled South Africa’s top order for just 9 runs but they managed to reach 106/8 after the fighting knocks from Keshav Maharaj and Wayne Parnell.
In the second match, David Miller and Quinton de Kock stood up for their side while chasing a mammoth 238. Though the Proteas fell short by 16 runs, Miller went on to smash his second T20I hundred in Guwahati. And in the third game, South Africa roared back to avoid a clean sweep with Rilee Rossouw hitting a quick-fire ton at Indore’s Holkar Stadium.
