South Africa have reached two World Cup finals since Shabnim Ismail stepped away from international cricket, but the 37-year-old fast bowler is now back as they try to go one step further. The decision to bring her out of retirement was driven by South Africa’s need for pace ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Ismail, who owns the fastest delivery recorded in the women’s game, has also remained one of the most effective bowlers in T20 cricket since her retirement. Across the Hundred, the WBBL, WCPL and WPL, she has taken 99 wickets in 90 T20 matches, sitting behind only spinners Hayley Matthews and Jess Jonassen in that period. With South Africa’s leading seam-bowling wicket-taker in the same span being slower-ball specialist Nadine de Klerk, and genuine pace still uncommon in women’s cricket, coach Mandla Mashimbyi described the move to bring Ismail back as a “no-brainer.”
“When I got the job, one of the things was to see why she’s not part of the team,” Mashimbyi said at a press conference in which the squad was announced. “With the time that I had to the ODI World Cup, I didn’t have much time to have those conversations but after that I contacted her. I said that whenever she’s ready, she can give me a call and in the last month or so, those talks took a positive turn.”
Following South Africa’s 1-4 series defeat in New Zealand in March, where only Ayabonga Khaka showed strong control, Mashimbyi and Ismail held further discussions.
“There was a point where he actually gave me a call. He said, ‘Take your time to make the decision. I’m not forcing you to play, but I really need and want you to come back and help us win the World Cup,'” Ismail said in a Cricket South Africa distributed interview on Tuesday. “He also mentioned to me that we are missing that one pace element. It’s not that I’m going to be the magic stick, but I’m hoping that when we get to the World Cup, I can try and make a difference or try and help the youngsters with my skill and my seniority. To be honest, I don’t actually think the team needs me. I think they’ve been doing phenomenally well.”
In Ismail’s absence, South Africa made the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 ODI World Cup, but the title remained out of reach. Mashimbyi has made ending that wait a central target and has turned to experienced players as part of that push.
Former captain Dane van Niekerk, who retired after a controversial period in which she failed a then-mandatory fitness test and missed out on the 2023 T20 World Cup squad, has also come out of retirement after returning late last year. She has played nine internationals since her comeback and, despite missing the previous two series through injury, has been named in the T20 World Cup squad.
Selection convener Clinton du Preez said van Niekerk is “in good shape”.
“She’s been working whilst being off and she’s currently also doing some work at the academy at the HPC (High Performance Centre) which is also good to see. She’s ready and fit and it was a strategic decision to include her. Within our batting lineup, she has something we believe we require from a stability point of view and also the impact she can make with experience in that middle order,” du Preez said at a press conference.
Mashimbyi’s focus on experience also led him to approach Ismail, who had retired while citing the need to spend more time with family. She was also understood to have been dissatisfied with some aspects of administration.
“Whatever happened in the past happened. I came here on a clean slate and I want to achieve great things with this team,” Mashimbyi said. “For that to happen, you need to have the best people available. And Shabnim is one of those. It was important for me to actually go and have a chat with her because we wouldn’t have a player of her calibre sitting at home and watching us play at a World Cup. Looking at the gaps that we had as a team, she fit the bill beautifully.”
South Africa’s need to recall players who had already stepped away, a situation also seen in the men’s team with Quinton de Kock’s return, is likely to prompt questions about the depth in the system. For Mashimbyi, however, that issue can wait, with van Niekerk and Ismail’s comebacks giving the team more time.
“The fact that Shabnim is still available to play actually buys us a bit of time to make sure that we put processes in place to produce the next fast bowler. And not just one,” he said. “We need to have a big pool of them so that we can have that healthy competition. And there’s a couple of players that have got the potential. We just need to put in work with them and make sure that in a year or two, they’re where they need to be in terms of what’s required in international cricket.”
One of those players is Ayanda Hlubi, who has already played two Tests, 12 ODIs and nine T20Is at the age of 21. Hlubi has been involved in recent South African squads but did not make the World Cup travelling party because of illness. Even if she might not have made the final squad, she remains among the players Mashimbyi hopes can be developed to eventually succeed Ismail.
For now, attention will be firmly on Ismail, who may have something to prove after missing out at the latest Hundred auction, especially with the T20 World Cup being staged in England. Known for her competitive edge, Ismail appears ready to return to the highest level with the same intensity.
“I’m always excited and I always have that fire in me to want to do well for the team,” Ismail said. “For us, to win that World Cup is going to take something really spectacular. We’ve done the hard yards throughout now. We’ve made final after final. It’s just that one element. I don’t really think it’s skill; it’s more the mental part of knowing that when we get to the final, how are we going to overcome that one last hurdle? When I go to this World Cup, I hope we can make it right through and win the World Cup and come home really happy. That’s one thing that will actually give me that boost. After that, then I’ll just say happy retirement.”
Whether this tournament will be her final international appearance remains uncertain. Mashimbyi is not ruling out more games beyond the World Cup. “She’s a freelancer at the moment, let’s be honest. She’s playing the leagues,” he said. “We’ll just obviously see her availability and if it all works out, she’ll play for us more.”
