Proteas searching for answers with T20 World Cup on the horizon

South Africa suffered a second 100-run-plus shellacking in a T20 International this year, but Tuesday’s defeat to India in Cuttack was more concerning than the beatdown in Manchester in September.

Then it was a 146-run hammering at the hands of England’s destructive Phil Salt, but the 101-run loss to India was more comprehensive in the sense that South Africa’s batting and bowling failed them.

By restricting India to a total under 180, the Proteas thought they’d done a reasonable job with the ball, but India’s bowlers showed far greater discipline and consistency by targeting the stumps relentlessly to overwhelm Aiden Markram’s team.

The Indians won by 101-runs, thanks to Hardik Pandya’s unbeaten 59 off 28 balls which helped them reach 175/6. Pandya added to his outstanding evening with a wicket after Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakravathy had bamboozled South Africa’s top order.

The Proteas have spent 2025 searching for their best balanced starting team and based on Tuesday’s night’s effort that search will continue in this series. Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock opened the batting for the first time, Tristan Stubbs batted at No 3 for the first time in more than a year, while David Miller played his first T20 International this year.

South Africa had a batting order featuring Marco Jansen at No 7 – which for all his batting prowess is one spot too high – while among the bowlers Lutho Sipamla and Anrich Nortje, like Miller, were playing their first T20Is this year.

It looked disjointed and the performances matched that. South Africa has spent most of 2025 experimenting with the T20 side, with De Kock’s international return along with Miller overcoming injury providing experience.

Injuries haven’t helped, besides Miller being out with a calf ailment. In Namibia SA lost the services of Gerald Coetzee and for this tour they are without Kagiso Rabada.

“Every 11 we put out there we expect to win regardless of injuries,” said batting coach Ashwell Prince.

“We need to find more consistency,” he added.

That is the biggest problem. The Proteas’ performance with the ball was shown up by how well India did later. Not enough deliveries from the South Africans hit the stumps, and later when Pandya was putting them under pressure, the inability to land the yorker was worrying.

The team’s best yorker bowler, Corbin Bosch, was benched, along with Otneill Baartman, whose stump-to-stump line would have been useful on a slightly slower pitch, which did have some extra bounce.

“After that batting performance, that is one department we will have to improve on quickly. India have a formidable bowling attack that asked a lot of good questions. Ultimately as a batting unit we have to answer those questions, and tonight we weren’t up to the task,” Prince said.

South Africa were bowled out for 74, making very little impression chasing a total they thought was achievable.

Besides Rabada, this is very much the squad Shukri Conrad feels can challenge at next year’s T20 World Cup. Though South Africa, in the past two years, haven’t put much stock in the outcome of bilateral series – with players often rested and a number of younger players given opportunities – this series with India is a crucial marker for what they hope to do next February.