The role of spinners in South African cricket has evolved from optional extras in the mid-90s through mid-2000s to essential, in the form of Imran Tahir in white-ball sides in the 2010s and Keshav Maharaj in Tests for most of the last decade. Now, in the Shukri Conrad white-ball era, they might also be required to do something else: bat.

"It's ideal if you can stack your side with as many allrounders as possible," Conrad said from Darwin, where South Africa will play the first of 20 further T20Is in the lead-up to next year's World Cup. "And when I say allrounders, I mean fully-fledged allrounders: guys that offer quite a lot with the bat, and obviously with the ball as well."

That's why neither Maharaj nor Tabraiz Shamsi , who is South Africa's leading wicket-taker in T20Is ,

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