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Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has urged the South African team management to get Heinrich Klaasen out of international cricket retirement in their bid to lift the ICC Cricket World Cup 2027 title on home soil.
Klaaasen, having retired from international cricket in June last year, has been going strong in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). So far, he is the second-highest run-getter this season, with 414 runs in nine innings at an average of 59.14 and a strike rate of 157.41, with four fifties to his name. Taking to X on Thursday, Pietersen wrote, "South Africa have never won a cricket world cup! There should be a phone call this morning, from the South African cricket board, to Heinrich Klaasen, to ask him if he can rejoin international cricket and be a central figure in their campaign to try and win their first ever World Cup, which will be in South Africa next year." https://x.com/KP24/status/2049669973614977226 Klaasen's international retirement reversal, while it depends totally on himself, is not completely out of the realm of real possibility, as last year, even wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock reversed his white-ball cricket retirement to feature in this year's ICC T20 World Cup and the 2027 WC at home and has delivered some fine performances since then. In a seven-year international career spanning from 2018-25, Klaasen made 3,245 runs in 122 matches at an average of 32.45 and a strike rate of 117.40, including four centuries and 16 fifties and a best score of 174. While his Test career was shorter, with just 104 runs in four matches, Klaasen was a valuable white-ball cricketer for Proteas. In 60 ODIs, he collected 2,141 runs at an average of 43.69 and a strike rate of over 117, with four centuries and 11 fifties and a best score of 174 in 56 innings. In T20Is, he made 1,000 runs in 58 matches and 53 innings at an average of 23.25 and a strike rate of over 141, with five fifties and a best score of 81. Klaasen is well-known for his exploits in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, scoring 373 runs in 10 innings at an average of 41.44 and a strike rate of 133.21, including a century and a fifty. While he failed to leave a mark in the 2021 T20 World Cup, he was SA's second-highest run-getter and overall 10th-highest with 190 runs in eight innings at an average of 31.66 and a strike rate of 126.66, with a knock of 52 against India in the final as his crowning jewel, despite losing the match while chasing 177 runs by seven runs. The ICC Champions Trophy semifinal against New Zealand last year in Lahore marked his final international appearance. (ANI)
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