As has been the case for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) or other sides around the world, Paarl Royals struggled to show their dominance under pressure in the knockouts. They lost the first qualifier against MI Cape Town before facing the result against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape by eight wickets during the second qualifier of the event.

Paarl Royals came into the auction of the 2025/26 season’s SA20 with R14.5 million with a requirement of bagging 13 players in the squad, including five overseas and two under-23 players in the team. During the auction, they went after several players, including Wiaan Mulder and Rassie van der Dussen, but they were unable to get them in.

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They got on the board with their first signing of Ottneil Baartman, who went to the Pink franchise for R5.10 million after the Sunrisers Eastern Cape decided not to use their RTM on that pacer. Their most expensive buy of the evening was Proteas’ wicket-keeper right-handed batter, Kyle Verreynne, who had a base price of R200k, which PC matched before getting an increased rate to R2.3 million.

SA20 2025/26: Full list of players and captain for Paarl Royals

Late in the evening, the Royals also got the left-arm spinner of the West Indies side, Gudakesh Motie, whose style of bowling will suit the slow and low surfaces of the Boland Park in Paarl. They already had two more spinners, as the pre-signing of Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza and Afghanistan’s Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman.

Eshan Malinga will also be part of the side and could look to take responsibility for the death overs’ bowling. David Miller will be their key lower-order batter, while they can open easily with the new sensational star of the shortest format, Lhuan-dre-Pretorious.

Paarl Royals

Retained: Lhuan-dre-Pretorious, David Miller, Bjorn Fortuin

Wild Card: Rubin Hermann

Pre-signing: Sikandar Raza and Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman.

Auction: Ottneil Baartman (R5.1 million), Gudakesh Motie (R375,000), Delano Potgieter (R2.6 million), Kyle Verreynne (R2.3 million), Keagan Lion-Cachet (R950,000), Asa Tribe (R200,000), Hardus Viljoen (R200,000), Jacon Johannes Basson (R200,000), Dan Lawrence (R500,000), Eshan Malinga (R1 million), Nqobani Mokoena (R200,000), Vishen Halambage (R200,000), Nqaba Peter (R500,000).