Tristan Stubbs’ chance to announce himself at the biggest stage

There were plenty of surprise packages in IPL 2024, but few exceeded expectations the way Tristan Stubbs did. 

At the IPL auction in December, Stubbs was bought by Delhi Capitals (DC) for his base price of 50 lakh. It was seen as somewhat of a ‘steal’ but, at the same time, Stubbs going for his base price did not come as a shock or surprise to many. 

For he’d not done justice to his talent, struggling to impact games consistently — across competitions — despite showcasing his x-factor in the odd encounter. 

But IPL 2024 saw Stubbs kill the boy and become a man. The absence of Harry Brook provided a permanent spot in DC’s starting XI for the right-hander, who took the opportunity with both hands. 

Picking up from where he left in SA20 2024, where he smashed 301 runs at an average of 60.2 and strike rate of 168.2, Stubbs lit up the IPL with his innovation, power-hitting and clean striking. 

The 23-year-old has always possessed the tools to be an elite middle-order batter, but pretty much no one expected him to put everything together and have the kind of season he did. 

In the group stages of IPL 2024, nobody scored more runs (252), hit more sixes (20) and batted at a higher strike rate (262.5) in the 16-20 phase than Stubbs. 

The venue, the bowling type, the conditions — none of it mattered. Stubbs absolutely scorched everything that came his way. 

And he did it with astonishing consistency: the right-hander passed the 20-run mark in seven of the 13 innings in which he batted. In these knocks, he averaged 170.5 while striking at 217.2. 

Considering ‘finishing’ is such a hit and miss role in T20s, these are borderline abnormal figures. 

2024 has been some year for Stubbs already, with him propelling Sunrisers Eastern Cape to the SA20 title and then backing it up with a head-turning season in the IPL. 

However, coming up for the big-hitting right-hander is the biggest assignment of his career, yet: the T20 World Cup in the United States & The Caribbean. 

Since his international debut back in June 2022, Stubbs has been South Africa’s ‘chosen one’. He’s been backed heavily by the management, to the extent that he was a starter for the Proteas in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia despite having less than 10 games under his belt.

Yet despite the evident backing, it’s not quite happened at the international level for the 23-year-old, whose average after 17 T20Is reads a paltry 21.72. The explosive 28-ball 72 in his first ever innings, against England, remains Stubbs’ only 50+ score in T20Is to date.

Only five of Stubbs’ 17 games in T20I cricket have come in the last 18 months — during which time he’s vastly improved as a cricketer — but the right-hander will be the first one to admit that he’s not quite hit the ground running at the international level. 

In that sense, the forthcoming T20 World Cup in the United States & the Caribbean is a significant assignment in the career of Stubbs, who is still looking to announce himself both to the South African fans and at the international level.

In the years gone by, the T20 World Cup has served as the launchpad for the careers of several players. Most recently, the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Glenn Phillips and Wanindu Hasaranga have all gone on to establish themselves as bona fide superstars on the back of breakthrough World Cup showings. 

With Stubbs currently in the form of his life, you reckon that this T20WC is slotted at the perfect time for the right-hander to explode and hit a different level, something that’s felt inevitable for quite some time now. 

For Stubbs, carrying the IPL form into the T20WC will be a big ask, but if the 23-year-old can prove to be even half as effective as he was for the Capitals, then South Africa’s batting line-up, on paper at least, will be so formidable that it’ll put the fear of god into opposition sides. 

The Proteas are already lined-up with Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller as their top five batters. If they can somehow add an in-form Stubbs to this already-devastating unit, at No.6, and then round the batting line-up with Marco Jansen at No.7, then the Proteas will unquestionably be one of the teams to watch out for come the T20WC. 

Test debut. SA20 title. A triple-century in first-class cricket. A world beater of a season in the IPL. 

2024 has already gone as well as Tristan Stubbs would have hoped for. Could he turn the first half of the year into a perfect one with a stellar T20WC campaign?

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