By: Express News ServiceDecember 5, 2025 06:57 PM IST 3 min readSouth Africa fell agonisingly close to winning the T20 World Cup in the last edition. (AP Photo)Although South Africa are onlty fifth in the ICC T20 Rankings at present, the Aiden Markram-led side will be one of the key contenders for the title in next year’s ICC T20 World Cup to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka. Having reached the final in the 2024 T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies, where they lost to India in the final, the Proteas will be facing India in a five-match T20I series starting next week. With SA20, South Africa’s domestic T20 competition finishing a couple of weeks prior to next year’s T20 World Cup, former all-rounder Jacques Kallis believes that it will help the team.“I think it’s going to play a big role. I don’t think it’ll make the guys play any harder or anything like that, because the guys would have put the 100 percent effort in, in any case. But I do think it’s fantastic preparation, looking forward to that World Cup,” Kallis said while speaking with ICC.While South Africa has not won a T20I series in their last five T20I series, the team has also seen the likes of 2024 T2) World Cup hero Heinrich Klaasen retiring. The South African T20 team facing India next week sees Marco Jansen along with other all-rounders like Donavan Ferreira, George Linde and Corbin Bosch in the team. With Jansen, who is currently ranked number two in ICC Test All-rounders rankings, calming the man of the match award during the second Test of the two test series against India at Guwahati with his knock of 93 runs in the first innings and seven wickets in the match, Kallis believes that the all-rounder will bring a good balance in the South Africa team.“He’s had a massive year, hasn’t he. He’s always had the potential. It was just a matter of figuring his game out. He’s obviously figured it out now and is getting a good balance. He’s always been magnificent with the ball. Perhaps in previous years, he didn’t quite fulfil his talent with the bat. He’s certainly turned that around now. He’s a premium all-rounder now,” Kallis added.Jansen had spoken about how winning a Test series in India is special for the team and how he sees the current South Africa set-up. “Winning a Test match and series in India is very special. Very well done to everyone for putting their hand up and making this happen. We just spoke about doing the simple things well and assessing conditions to change our plan, and sticking to what works. I just give all the credit to Shuks (Conrad, head coach). He told me to go out there and express myself. It means everyone is working very hard, and doing what is required, what we need to in individual capacity. We’re always trying to improve, we play for each other and give our best.,” Jansen had said post the second Test in Guwahati.Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Jacques KallisT20 world Cup