South Africa announces playing XI for WTC Final 2025, Lungi Ngidi returns as Dane Paterson benched

South Africa has named their playing XI for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2025 against Australia a day prior. Proteas captain Temba Bavuma addressed the press at Lord’s and, in a rather Ben Stokes-ian way, named the team that’ll fight for the Test mace.

Lungi Ngidi returns

Fascinatingly, InsideSport had predicted that South Africa would name the exact XI. There were a few talking about it. Will Bavuma decide to pick Tony de Zorzi, an opener who has shown glimpses of brilliance? Will Keshav Maharaj be included, knowing that his services may not be needed for a long duration or perhaps for the entire match? Would it be right to bring in Lungi Ngidi, who hasn’t played a Test match since August 2024, over Dane Paterson, who has been their best bowler in the last few matches?

But in the end, South Africa has decided to continue trusting Maharaj and his invaluable left-arm spin. Have backed Tristan Stubbs over de Zorzi. And picked Ngidi, who can do much more on an unhelpful pitch than Paterson due to his height, speed, and variations.

“Probably one of the tougher decisions that has been made. We see what Dane Paterson did for us to the end of last season. But it was more from a tactical point of view. Probably a little bit more pace from Lungi, guess he’s a bit taller as well. Lungi also has a better record, not taking away anything from Patto. He (Ngidi) has the experience, he’s played here before, not that Patto hasn’t. But I think he (Ngidi) will complement that bowling attack a little more. We have a guy like Mulder, who can give us something similar like Patto. It was probably one of the difficult decision we had to make,” Bavuma said.

Not Stubbs, Mulder at 3

Bavuma has cleared that it’ll be Wiaan Mulder who’ll bat at number three instead of Tristan Stubbs. In their home matches, the all-rounder did bat at one down a couple of times. And even against Zimbabwe, in the practice match for the WTC Final, Mulder played at the position.

“Mulder is quite young in that position. But I think having played with Mulder, having seen him and the way he has grown in the last two years within the red-ball format. It’s about giving him a lot more confidence, keep backing him and just allowing him to do what he does best. He has an opportunity in a pressure situation, but I think he can take comfort from the fact that the guys are backing him. We just want him to play his game,” Bavuma said.

South Africa playing XI for WTC Final 2025

Batters: Ryan Rickelton, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk)

All-rounders: Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder

Bowlers: Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi

Bench: Tony de Zorzi, Corbin Bosch, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson