Stubbs is back in the swing of things

BY ALL accounts Tristan Stubbs has got his smile back.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

It went walkabout for long periods in 2025, particularly in the shortest format, where Stubbs had seemingly lost the dynamism at the crease that launched his career.Instead, it was replaced with a grimace that was prevalent after each dismissal, and even more so when he uncharacteristically started dropping catches in the outfield too.

Something was amiss, so much so that arguably his greatest admirer Proteas coach Shukri Conrad was forced to have an honest conversation with him, which centred around his game-play that saw Stubbs ultimately dropped from the original T20 World Cup squad. But to the youngster's credit, he did not sulk, took it on the chin, and decided to pour all his energies into his two local teams, the Warriors and Sunrisers Eastern Cape, whom Stubbs captained for the first time.

Two months later and both the Warriors and Sunrisers are champions of the respective CSA T20 Challenge and Betway SA20. He also played a winning hand in the SA20 final at Newlands, striking an unbeaten half-century to drive the Sunrisers to a third championship title in four seasons.

It was a pivotal moment for by then Stubbs had already been sent an SOS to replace the injured Donovan Ferreira in the Proteas' T20 World Cup squad.