Heinrich Klaasen - South Africa - WK-Batsman

A destructive middle-order batter and an exceptional fielder who’s also capable of keeping wickets, Heinrich Klaasen is almost the perfect modern-day white-ball package. Whilst pursuing his bachelors' degree at the University of Pretoria, Heinrich Klaasen gained an interest in cricket after he made it to his college team. Rising through the ranks, he was handed a first-class debut for the Northerns in the 2012/13 season. Having taken the longer route to the top through domestic cricket rather than age-level cricket, Klaasen piled on the numbers and had an exponentially rising graph in his first three seasons, starting off with an average of 42 in his debut season which inflated to an exemplary 65 in his third.

The sheer weight of runs and his consistency gave him a license to play first-class cricket, and he immediately made an impression, falling just short of a double-hundred in February 2017 to help the Titans beat the Dolphins in the penultimate round of the first-class competition. Consistent performances throughout the season earned him a ticket to New Zealand as a reserve wicketkeeper. Unfortunately, however, he did not make the playing XI and missed out on the coveted Test cap.

South Africa's National Academy coach Shukri Conrad hailed him (a little controversially) as the 'poor man's Dhoni'. “Heinrich stays very calm in the situation. He stays in the moment. There’s very much a ‘poor man’s MS Dhoni’ about him. There are really no sideshows to his game and he doesn’t wait for the game to come to him. That is what I like most about him. He is as tough as they come.”

As it so happened, Klaasen got the opportunity to play against MS Dhoni when India visited in early 2018, replacing an injured de Kock in the ODI series. In an otherwise dismal limited-overs leg for the hosts, Klaasen was the shining light, earning himself the man of the match award in the only two games that the Proteas won. Pitted against the top-ranked international side in the world, Heinrich has turned out two composed performances under pressure. His T20I debut too came in the following T20I series against India and he was mighty impressive once again, winning a player of the match award for his 30-ball 69. He found himself back in the Test squad later that year for a series against Australia but didn’t feature in any game again. His Test debut eventually came in 2019 against India.

Quickly making a name for himself as a middle-order powerhouse and an exceptional fielder when he wasn’t behind the stumps, Klaasen was in demand amongst T20 franchises around the globe. His IPL foray came in unusual circumstances as he joined the Rajasthan Royals as a late call-up in 2018. Having impressed during the white-ball series against India, the wicket-keeper batsman was called up as a replacement for Australia's Steve Smith - who found himself with a one-year ban on account of the 'sandpaper fiasco'. Although he wasn't a first choice player, Klaasen acquitted himself fairly well in the four games he got to play. Released before the 2019 auctions, Klaasen was bought by the Royal Challengers, who snapped him up at the base price of 50 lakh rupees.

It took a while for Klaasen to find success in the IPL and he spent the majority of his time at RCB running the drinks. In the meantime, however, Klaasen was building up a solid reputation as a limited-overs cricketer whenever he got an opportunity. His maiden ODI hundred came in 2020 against Australia and he was always in the reckoning for the national side. He was part of both the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cup squads but only played 4 games combined.

The year 2023, however, was Klaasen’s real coming of age. He started the year off with a blistering century for Durban’s Super Giants in the SA20 and he backed that up with another century in the IPL, this time for SRH against his former side RCB. Later in the year, playing the MLC, Klaasen struck yet another hundred playing for the Seattle Orcas and became the first player to score a century in the MLC. He had a successful campaign in The Hundred as well scoring 189 runs in 7 games for the Oval Invincibles.

His top-form meant that he was called up for the 2023 Cricket World Cup as a reserve wicket-keeper.

By Rishi Roy and Anurag Hegde