ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Why Heinrich Klaasen isn't included in South Africa playing XI vs Afghanistan

Heinrich Klaasen made his ODI debut in 2018.

After two Group A games in the first two days of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, the first Group B match got underway on Friday between South Africa and Afghanistan in Karachi.

Both these teams had met in an ODI series in Sharjah last year, where Afghanistan registered their maiden series victory over South Africa in international cricket. But that was a depleted Protea side, bereft of several first-choice players.

South Africa are still not at their best playing XI in their opening game of the Champions Trophy as they are missing the dangerous middle-order keeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen.

Why is Heinrich Klaasen not playing vs Afghanistan?

Heinrich Klaasen has been ruled out of the game against Afghanistan in Karachi due to a left elbow soft tissue injury. It’s a precautionary measure, and he is expected to feature in South Africa’s next game against Australia on Tuesday in Rawalpindi.

Protea captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and elected to bat first at the National Stadium.

Bavuma said at the toss: “We will have a bat first. Looks a bit different that what we have been experiencing here, not sure how will it react. Will try to post a competitive total on the board. I have a lot of confidence in our bowling attack, today we have gone for a lone spinner in Shamsi and the rest are seamers.”

This is Afghanistan’s maiden appearance in the Champions Trophy.

Hashmatullah Shahidi: “If we had won the toss, we would have batted first but the toss is not in our hands and we have to play good cricket. (On what it will take to beat South Africa) We played some quality cricket against them in Sharjah and we have quality spinners. Hopefully, we do well and can beat them.”

Teams:

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad

South Africa (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma(c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

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