Two of the biggest rising stars in South African cricket, Dewald Brevis and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, have signed for the Hampshire Hawks for the T20 Blast.
The English T20 competition begins on May 29 and concludes with the final on September 13 after a scheduled 133 matches.
Brevis, 21, has already made his Proteas bow, but after just two T20 Internationals in 2023, he has not returned to the team. The batting all-rounder, though, has already played 81 T20s and scored five fifties and one century in that time at a strike-rate of 144.
Meanwhile, Pretorius, at 19, has already made a big impression in the SA20 earlier this season. In 12 matches for the Paarl Royals, Pretorius, the powerful southpaw opener, bludgeoned 397 runs at an average of 33 and a strike-rate of 166.
How friendship with Dewald Brevis fuels Pretorius's cricketing growth
Pretorius said that his friendship with Brevis has helped him grow as a player.
"Dewald Brevis was in my shoes so long ago. I've been speaking to him. He's obviously experienced a lot of things at a very young age as well. So he's a good teammate to have and a good friend to have. So I speak a lot to him about certain stuff, and I just try to sponge off him and learn from his lessons," Pretorius told SportsBoom.com.
"Actually, we became very good mates, and he's a good person to speak to because we're around the same age. He's a bit older than me, but he's experienced everything, basically all the leagues around the world, and he's had a taste of international cricket as well.”
Of course, Brevis made a big splash early in his career for his strokeplay ability all around the wicket that led to comparisons with Proteas legend AB de Villiers. That probably set expectations too high at the outset, and that’s something Brevis learnt from, and he’s been able to impart that knowledge to Pretorius.
"So you can, you speak to him about stuff and lessons he's learned, and then you don't want to make the same mistake," Pretorius.
“Not that he has made mistakes, but he warns you about certain things. If we go to lunch, we don't speak about much about anything else, we just basically speak about cricket."