AHMEDABAD: South African skipper Aiden Markram on Sunday said his team enters the T20 World Cup with confidence and self-belief boosted by their World Test Cham­pionship triumph last year.

Runners-up in 2024, South Africa begin their campaign in the 20-team tournament against Canada at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday.

The Proteas in June 2025 beat Australia in the World Test Championship final to win their first major ICC trophy and shrug off their “chokers” tag.

Pace bowler Kagiso Rabada had recently spoken about the change in public perception about South Africa’s presence in global tournaments and Markram said he thinks the same.

“I think KG is a lot more involved in social media. I’m pretty useless on my phone,” Markram told reporters.

“But it does feel that way — the belief, confidence, monkey off the back and all those things play a role in the language and behaviour within the camp.

“It definitely helps. But having said that, you don’t come here thinking it’s suddenly going to be easy. We still have to be at our best. The WTC trophy definitely gave us belief and confidence within the group.”

South Africa agonisingly lost the 2024 T20 World Cup final to India when needing 30 off the last 30 balls only to fall short by seven runs.

They are clubbed with New Zealand, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates and Canada in Group ‘D’.

Markram admits playing an associate nation could be tricky.

“The gap between Ass­ociate nations and the other countries has become much smaller,” said Markram.

“In this format, it just takes one or two players having a really good day for an upset to happen. Even at the start of this World Cup, we’ve seen some close games that could have gone either way”.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2026