Fearsome batsman, who almost snatched the T20 World Cup from India, insists he is not coming out of retirement

His innings in the final to date sends shivers down one's spine. But the good thing is he is still playing in the IPL.

Updated on: Apr 4, 2026, 06:58:56 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

In 2024, this batsman was at the height of his power. For Sunrisers Hyderabad, he had played some extraordinary innings. He was well ahead of his time, and later in the same year, he almost snatched the T20 World Cup from India. He had made a mockery of Indian bowling until a piece of luck tilted the match in India's favour. A minor break induced by Rishabh Pant's injury -- many say it was more of a ploy to slow things down -- broke his momentum, and he perished to Hardik Pandya, after which India staged a great comeback to win their second T20 World Cup. No prizes for guessing, it's Heinrich Klaasen, the fearsome South African batsman.

Virat Kohli, part of the Indian team, was lucky that day. (PTI)

But then in 2025, he announced a shock retirement from international cricket, prioritising franchise cricket. At present, he is playing for SRH in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and the other day against KKR, he scored a very responsible fifty that proved crucial in the context of the match. A flurry of wickets required somebody to step back a bit and hold their end up, and Klaasen did exactly that.

Also Read: Now a PSL star, Zampa dives deep into the mentality of IPL franchises and says he is not the only one to be undervalued

Because he can still smash the bowlers all over the park, cricket fans, not just South Africans, hope that maybe he will come back from his retirement. After all, he is just 34 and looks fit as a fiddle. Klaasen has come out on the matter, and in a heartbreaking statement, he said he was never coming back to international cricket. But he did entertain the thoughts, though, during the 2026 T20 World Cup, where South Africa reached the semifinals.

Klaasen has made up his mind, sadly!

"It was a thought for about 2 weeks, and then we decided against it. Obviously, my family plays a big role in it. I have missed my friends when they did extremely well in the World Cup, but I had a little bit more FOMO [fear of missing out], and I wanted to come back.

"I spoke to Aiden Markram, actually. He said if he is capped, then I will definitely come back. But after the World Cup, I realise it's not going to happen, so I am not coming back,” Klaasen, who played his last international match in the semifinal against New Zealand in the 2025 Champions Trophy, said in a video released by the league.

Klaasen, who played 4 Tests, 60 ODIs and 58 T20Is for the Proteas, will next be in action tomorrow (Sunday) at home against Lucknow Super Giants.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

Get live cricket scores, match updates, schedules, results and ICC rankings. Follow the latest news, statistics and performances of top teams and players on Hindustan Times.