Keshav Maharaj

His path began early. At 16 he played his first first-class match for KwaZulu-Natal in the 2006-07 season, and by 2009-10 he had moved up to the Dolphins. In April and May 2010 he visited Bangladesh with the South Africa Academy, collecting 13 wickets across two four-day games against the Bangladesh Cricket Board Academy and returning 4 for 12 from four overs with the new ball in a T20 fixture. In 2010-11 he turned out for South Africa A when Bangladesh A toured. Spells abroad followed, with Cuckfield in the Sussex Premier League in 2013 and as Nelson's professional in the Lancashire League in 2015, the same year he was named in the KwaZulu-Natal squad for the Africa T20 Cup.

A strong domestic campaign earned him a national call, and he travelled to Australia in late 2016 as the leading spin option. He went on to claim 15 wickets in New Zealand, more than any other South African bowler on that tour, and then 17 in four Tests against England. His first ODI came in 2017 in England, and he was picked for the Champions Trophy that year. He has worked well alongside South Africa's fast bowlers and became the side's preferred spinner in Test cricket.

In county cricket he represented Lancashire in 2018 and Yorkshire in 2019. On a tour of Sri Lanka he recorded career-best Test figures of 9-129 in the second Test, which the source describes as making him only the second left-arm spinner after Rangana Herath to take nine wickets in a Test innings.

Unusually, he was handed the T20 captaincy for a series in Sri Lanka before playing a T20 international, then led the side to a win in his first game and struck with his very first ball. He was part of the squads for the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups and the 15-man squad for the 2023 Cricket World Cup.