Last Updated on 2 months by Charbel Coorey
South Africa and MI Cape Town batsman Ryan Rickelton, who recently hit 259 in a Test against Pakistan, believes T20 cricket is tougher than the longest format of the game.
Speaking ahead of the SA20 2025 Final, Rickelton said that while Test cricket has its challenges, T20 requires you to be on point every single ball.
“I grew up wanting to be a Test player and thought that in T20, you can just whack a few, but T20 cricket is flipping hard. It’s different, but it is harder,” Rickelton said, speaking to ESPNcricinfo.
You can bide your time more in Tests – Ryan Rickelton
Explaining why, Rickelton, who has ten Tests and 65 First Class matches under his belt, said there is pressure on every delivery in T20s. If there is a little period where the scoring slows down, there is that anxiety that builds.
“Test cricket is very hard, but with T20s, there’s a lot more pressure on every delivery. In Test cricket, you can bide your time and work your way through it at a lower intensity. In T20s, you’ve got to score [off] every ball,” Rickelton said.
“There’s always pressure on you, internally, externally, there’s more detailed analysis on you as a player, and against your opposition. They’re always trying to hit your weaknesses. There’s a lot more to it than it seems.”
Travis Head shared similar thoughts during Australia’s limited overs tour of the UK in 2024. Speaking to Sky Sports before the second ODI against England at Leeds, Head said the shorter the format, the tougher it is.
“This is going to sound weird, but the shorter the format the tougher for me. I find T20 the hardest because there’s run rate, there’s pressure to score, there’s expectation every time you go out you have to strike rate 130, 140, 150. That’s going north as everyone’s trying to hit them further” Head said.
“Test cricket I find somewhat the easiest because if I’m not feeling great, I can go as slow as I want and if I’m feeling really good, I can go as fast as I want. There’s no barriers to what you can do.” Head continued.
“From the playing side of things, I enjoy Test cricket the most and I find it somewhat the easiest. It’s the toughest in terms of conditions and technique and all those things, but the expectation is something that is always there in white-ball cricket.”
Rickelton has come of age as a T20 batter. He topped the run-scoring charts in SA20 2024 (530) and has also enjoyed a solid 2025 campaign with 303 runs at a strike rate of 175.14. He and Rassie van der Dussen have been key in leading MI Cape Town to the final.
Now, Rickelton is keen to experience the IPL, where he will be part of the Mumbai Indians squad in 2025.
“I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve chatted to lots of guys about the IPL and you hear all these things and you think, ‘This is big boy stuff.’ I’m probably a little bit nervous of how the whole two or three months are going to play out. But you never know if you have a good two months here anything can happen,” he said.
