Toss Australia chose to bat vs South Africa

A fit Phoebe Litchfield made the cut in an allrounder-heavy XI as Australia opted to bat against South Africa on a used Old Trafford surface in their Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 opener.

In a rematch of the semi-final of the 2024 edition, Australia went in with as many as four spinners with Alana King’s superior ODI record against South Africa (15 wickets in five matches, average 8.26) influencing the decision. Captain Sophie Molineux, legspinner Georgia Wareham and offspinner Ashleigh Gardner were the other spinners. As a result, Australia have four seamers and four spinners to turn to with Molineux saying “bowling in the fourth innings might suit us”. Litchfield had missed Australia’s last warm-up game with a quad strain but had regained fitness in time for their first match in the tournament proper.

South Africa, meanwhile, welcomed Shabnim Ismail back. The right-arm quick had retired from international cricket after South Africa’s runners-up finish in the home T20 World Cup of 2023, but reversed that decision just before this tournament. However, there was no place for former captain Dane van Niekerk and regular opener Tazmin Brits. Instead, South Africa had seam-bowling allrounder Annerie Dercksen in at No. 3 with Marizanne Kapp at No. 4, with Sune Luus opening the batting with captain Laura Wolvaardt. South Africa also had as many as nine bowling options, including five seamers.

The pitch was the same on which Scotland won their first T20 World Cup match earlier in the afternoon. It was fairly central with one square side (60m) being only slightly shorter than the other (61m).

This is the first time Australia and South Africa are meeting in a T20I since last edition’s semi-final. Their last international, though, was at the ODI World Cup last year, a match in which King picked up 7 for 19.

Australia: 1 Beth Mooney (wk), 2 Georgia Voll, 3 Phoebe Litchfield, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Ashleigh Gardner, 6 Georgia Wareham, 7 Annabel Sutherland, 8 Nicola Carey, 9 Sophie Molineux (capt), 10 Kim Garth, 11 Alana King

South Africa: 1 Laura Wolvaardt (capt), 2 Sune Luus, 3 Annerie Dercksen, 4 Marizanne Kapp, 5 Chloe Tryon, 6 Nadine de Klerk, 7 Kayla Reyneke, 8 Sinalo Jafta (wk), 9 Shabnim Ismail, 10 Ayabonga Khaka, 11 Nonkululeko Mlaba