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Ryan Rickelton wants to show that he has what it takes to defy the trend of international cricket players who are all-around skilled.
In recent years, the South African has demonstrated his ability to play both the smallest and longest formats of the game. He began 2025 by defeating Pakistan in a Test match at Newlands with an impressive 259 and swiftly converted that performance into the SA20 to help his MI Cape Town team win the game.
Ryan Rickelton will have his next test in the ODI format when the Proteas compete for the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy in 2025.
Encouraged by guidance from a South African veteran, the 28-year-old, who has a solid domestic 50-over record, is enjoying the challenge of again switching formats in an effort to support his nation.
It’s really hard to fire on all three at once, he claimed, and the three-format player craze has waned.
The biggest opportunity, however, will come if you can identify a strategy and a style of play that you like, particularly in the two white-ball groups.
The people that are doing it well, like Travis Heads and Rohit Sharma, play consistently in the same manner in all forms. Travis in particular is arguably the best three-format player right now.
Over the past several years, I’ve collaborated extensively with Hashim Amla, who has been an excellent coach to me.
“I look too leg-side sometimes when I get a little excited,” he explains, referring to his skill as an off-side playmaker. When I cover drive, he usually gets happy because he’s always pushing me to open up the off-side a little more.
“He will observe things in the nets and enquire as to why I was thinking particular things—all of the things you don’t see on television.”
The senior South African team’s first tour was in Pakistan in 2021, and Rickelton is back with the hopes of earning a spot at the head of the order in a lineup full of explosive players.
In the SA20, he recently scored 336 runs at a strike rate of 178.72. He hopes to carry this momentum to Pakistan and will compete against Tony de Zorzi to partner skipper Temba Bavuma.
He remarked, “Over the past couple of years, it has been really hard to get into this ODI squad.”
“The rest of the order is pretty locked in, so Quinny’s (Quinton de Kock) retirement has opened the door for me to hopefully get a few games.” The lads on the team have a great deal of experience playing international cricket together.
“There’s no doubt that the guys are up for it; I’m sure they’ll be confident and it might be their last one.”
After winning the Champions Trophy, South Africa will play Australia in the ICC World Test Championship Final at Lord’s, where their hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batter is already excited about the chance to win another trophy. South Africa finished second in last year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Growing up, Rickelton, who was also a promising squash and rugby player and broke a Gauteng weightlifting record at the under-14 level, stated, “To play Australia at Lord’s in a one-off final is something none of us would have ever thought possible.”
“It will be fantastic. There are a lot of my friends and relatives in London, and I’m confident that half of South Africa and most likely half of Australia will be at the game.
“We all look forward to it, but it’s still a long way off, and there is still a tonne of cricket to play.”
To begin, South Africa won the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy in 1998, while it was still known as the ICC KnockOut Trophy.
After finishing as the top run scorer in South Africa’s domestic 50-over league in 2022–2023, Rickelton was given a chance to play in the format and has since played six ODIs.
He has six hundreds to his name and averages just over 46 in List A cricket. He feels that his nation’s familiarity with the format would make the transition easy.
“It may take some time to adjust, but as a child in South Africa, we played a lot of 50-over cricket, so it’s just about connecting back into that,” he added.
The mentality adjustment won’t be too difficult, in my opinion. All that needs to be done is try to adapt to those circumstances. It’s easy to forget that 50-over cricket is a time-consuming sport.
“Pakistani wickets can be pretty good for batting on; they swing well in the light and get pretty skiddy.” Although it may take some time to get used to the more buoyant wickets in South Africa, many of our players have played there a lot. We will talk about that, work things out, and lock in.
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