{"id":9908,"date":"2025-12-06T12:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T07:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=668241"},"modified":"2025-12-06T12:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T07:11:18","slug":"ind-vs-sa-kwena-maphaka-ruled-out-of-series-lutho-sipamla-added-to-south-africa-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ind-vs-sa-kwena-maphaka-ruled-out-of-series-lutho-sipamla-added-to-south-africa-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs SA: Kwena Maphaka ruled out of series; Lutho Sipamla added to South Africa squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"216\" data-end=\"563\">South Africa have announced a key change to their T20I squad ahead of the five-match series against India, as young fast-bowling sensation <strong data-start=\"355\" data-end=\"372\">Kwena Maphaka<\/strong> has been ruled out due to injury. The left-arm quick, who has been undergoing rehabilitation for a <strong data-start=\"472\" data-end=\"497\">left hamstring injury<\/strong>, has not recovered in time and will miss the start of the series.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"565\" data-end=\"608\"><strong data-start=\"569\" data-end=\"606\">Why is Kwena Maphaka not playing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"609\" data-end=\"907\">Cricket South Africa confirmed that Maphaka <strong data-start=\"653\" data-end=\"732\">\u201cdid not progress as expected during the final phase of his rehabilitation\u201d<\/strong>. Despite being close to full fitness, the medical team felt he would not be ready in time for the opening T20Is, prompting management to withdraw him from the squad entirely.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"909\" data-end=\"1039\">This comes as another setback for South Africa, who are already without Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi due to hamstring injuries.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"1041\" data-end=\"1072\"><strong data-start=\"1045\" data-end=\"1070\">Who replaces Maphaka?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"1073\" data-end=\"1343\">The Proteas have named <strong data-start=\"1096\" data-end=\"1113\">Lutho Sipamla<\/strong>, the DP World Lions fast bowler, as Maphaka\u2019s replacement for the T20 leg of the tour. Sipamla brings international experience and has been in strong domestic form, making him a logical choice to bolster the depleted pace attack.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"1345\" data-end=\"1390\"><strong data-start=\"1349\" data-end=\"1388\">Impact on South Africa\u2019s T20I plans<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"1391\" data-end=\"1607\">With Maphaka out and Burger uncertain, South Africa\u2019s fast-bowling depth has taken a significant hit. The team may now rely more heavily on Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder, and the returning Sipamla to share the workload.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1609\" data-end=\"1761\">The five-match T20I series begins on <strong data-start=\"1646\" data-end=\"1669\">Tuesday, December 9<\/strong>, with South Africa looking to stabilise after a series of untimely injuries across formats.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8 SQUAD UPDATE \ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n<p>Proteas Men\u2019s fast bowler Nandre Burger and batter Tony de Zorzi have been ruled out of the third One-Day International (ODI) against India on Saturday due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>Burger experienced right hamstring discomfort while bowling during the second ODI on\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zL7wLHReXb\">pic.twitter.com\/zL7wLHReXb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProteasMenCSA\/status\/1997185755114766517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa have announced a key change to their T20I squad ahead of the five-match series against India, as young\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":32432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}