CAPE TOWN: South Africa’s Twenty20 captain Aiden Markram wants his team’s promising young batsman to use the opportunity of limited overs tours to Australia and England over the next eight weeks to develop their careers and display their international potential.

South Africa have high hopes for powerful teenage slogger Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Dewald Brevis, the prolific 22-year-old run scorer who first competed in the Indian Premier League three years ago, as they continue preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup.

“The last thing you want to do is to clip their wings. You sort of want to let them fly and let them do their thing, Markram told a virtual press conference on Friday as South Africa readied to depart for Australia, where they play three T20 Internationals in Darwin and Cairns later this month.

“I think we’ve seen on various stages around the world now that they are proper X-factor players and that they have taken to international cricket quite easily,” Markram said.

“So, I don’t know if I have too much advice for the­m, besides the fact that they must keep taking the ga­me on and not be scared of disappointments or failures.

“It’s been great to see their progress. They’re going to play a massive role moving forward in cricket in South Africa and that’s the thing that we’re quite excited about,” the skipper added.

Brevis, a regular in T20 leagues around the world, debuted for South Africa’s T20 side against Australia two years ago while Pretorius, 19, debuted in last months tri-series against New Zealand and hosts Zimbabwe, scoring 51 in the final in Harare last weekend.

The pair are also in the squad to take on Australia in three One-day Internationals after the T20 series.

South Africa then head to England early next month for three ODIs and three T20s.

“For us as a team it’ll be about fine tuning a lot of things and preparing for that T20 World Cup, so a great opportunity in Australia and then followed by England and if we can get closer towards another trophy, that’ll be good,” Markram told reporters.

South Africa were runners-up at the last T20 World Cup in the West Indies one year ago and Mark­ram was the hero of their World Test Championship win over Australia in June.

The next T20 World Cup to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka in early 2026.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025