Follow UsSouth Africa will be without their skipper for their final group game of the 2025 Champions Trophy as Temba Bavuma misses out the England clash due to illness. The Proteas are being led by Aiden Markram in Bavuma’s absence.
Markram, the stand-in captain, lost the toss and thus it will be England who will be batting first in what’s Jos Buttler’s final game as the skipper of the country. England have been struck by injury too, with Mark Wood, who injured his knee in the Afghanistan clash, replaced by Saqib Mahmood.
The big news coming out of the South Africa camp, however, is that Heinrich Klaasen is back in the XI once again. Klaasen missed the Afghanistan game due to an elbow injury but he returns and takes the spot of Tony de Zorzi who, incidentally, is also down with illness. In Bavuma and de Zorzi’s absence, it’s Tristan Stubbs who will open the batting for the Proteas.
South Africa have one foot in the semis and will qualify unless they suffer a mammoth defeat.
Teams - Playing XIs
England
Philip Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith(w), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(c), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood
South Africa
Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
What the captains said
Jos Buttler: We are gonna bat first today, looks like a decent wicket, a few cracks there. We followed the game between South Africa and Afghanistan here and it influenced our decision. (On quitting captaincy ahead of this game) I felt like it was time, so I didn't want to take more time to take that decision. It was an easy decision and I will do it for one last time, hopefully we can do well. A bit of sadness as well, it's an honour to captain your country, it's something you dream about and I have had some good moments along the way.
Aiden Markram: We are actually happy to chase, haven't chased in this comp yet, we are looking forward to having a good game against a strong English side. Two guys have had illness around the camp, Tony and Temba miss out. Unfortunate that they miss out but hopefully they will recover. Our last game got rained out, we had a few training sessions, we are ready for this game.
Pitch Report
Shaun Pollock and Ramiz Raja reckon that the Karachi wicket today will please the batters but they expect the spinners to come into action late in the contest. There are cracks that are visible so both sides will need to be mindful of that.