Men's T20 World Cup: South African cricketer Rossouw's return gives more strength to SA batting

PERTH: Rilee Rossouw, the batter who smacked the Bangladesh bowlers to all parts of the field at the Sydney Cricket Ground on October 27 in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, couldn't break into South Africa's Test squad after scoring consistently by averaging 40 plus in the country's domestic first class season for three years in a row.

A frustrated Rossouw, who played for South Africa in the white ball cricket from 2014-16 including the 50-over World Cup in 2015 and the T20 World Cup in India one year later, signed the Kolpak deal with English county Hampshire in 2017 and lost the chance to represent his country again.

But things changed around once the no-deal Brexit happened and he returned to play cricket in South Africa.

The 33-year-old Bloemfontein-born hard-hitting batsman, who followed up his century against India at Indore in the three-match bilateral T20 series with the blistering innings of 109 in just 56 balls against Bangladesh, was also recalled to the South African national white ball team. In the intervening time he missed five years of international cricket and as some sort of a vengeance has struck back to back T20 International hundreds, with tons scored in the last match at Indore and in Sydney against Bangladesh.

Roussouw will be one of the key batsmen from the South African ranks who is expected to be discussed threadbare by the Indian team's think tank going into tomorrow's match here in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Rossouw, who had also played in the 2008 under 19 World Cup along with India's Virat Kohli, rated the century that he scored against India earlier this month as pretty special. IANS

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