Tazmin Brits, a Proteas Women’s key batter, has already indicated that she has no intention of ending her journey with the South African national team just yet, with her aim to be in the squad till the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in 2029.
Tazmin Brits, right-handed top-order-batter, has till now played 50 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and has scored 1687 runs with a strike rate of 80 and has achieved a personal best of 171 not out with seven hundreds and three half centuries to her name. At the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup, Tazmin Brits proved to be important to the South African squad with scores of 235 runs in nine matches, with a personal best of 101, once again maintaining a strike rate of 80 to take the team to the latter stages of the event.
At age of 34, Brits was one of the oldest players in the team during the recent international tournament in India and Sri Lanka, and the reality of time was something that was acknowledged in the team dressing room. Brits said that head coach Mandla Mashimbyi had called a few senior players before the final and said that they might end up playing their last World Cup for the country. However, Brits was determined to take that challenge head on and told the head coach to not write her off just yet.
“Funny enough I actually said to the coach when I rejoined the team, because before the World Cup final he called a few of the senior players and said this might be our last one. I said to him he mustn’t get rid of me yet, I will definitely try and stay fit as possible and improve on my game. I would like to play one more ODI, I don’t think I am done yet, hopefully another four or five years to go,” said Brits.
Her renewed zeal also came at a timely period when she returned to the national team for the ODI series against Ireland, where she marked her return during their comfortable seven wicket victory, her first appearance for the South African team since the World Cup final in November against India. Brits said that it had been really tough for her to sit out during the T20 series towards the start of December, especially considering the fact that this player still has aspirations of lifting the T20 World Cup trophy before retiring.
Though she was a part of a successful chase of 209 in the 1st ODI, Brits was frustrated with her quick departure for 27. While the team chased down the set 209 total with relative ease, Brits was disappointed with her dismissal after scoring 27 runs. Commenting on her departure, she said that she was attempting to play a ball between two fielders rather than completing her shot, admitting later that if she had “rung through” her shot, it would have surely resulted in a six.
While looking back on this incident, she realized how much she needs to work on power strokes with conviction, learning from this incident about how much she can learn from such experiences to fine tune her strokes in the years to come. As they looked ahead to the second ODI in Gqeberha. It’s going to be critical for Brits, going into the next cycle, to be able to take experience and fitness into the next cycle and be an engine at the top of the order for South Africa.
She expressed “We definitely spoke about intent, especially me and Goodall. We will definitely try to strike better and hopefully in the next game we can try and improve on that.
This is clear that she is a player who is motivated about taking their game into the next cycle and has a high level of intent about continuing their progress at the top of the order.
(Quotes sourced from SABC Sports)
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