Bevon Jacobs marks checklist for his cricket career as he is likely to make his international debut against South Africa.
Since earning his first New Zealand call-up for the home T20I series against Sri Lanka in December of last year, Bevon Jacobs life has seen many changes. a first Plunket Shield century, an ILT20 league debut in the United Arab Emirates, IPL collaborations with Kieron Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah, and most recently a CPL contract.
Jacobs frequently had to settle for being the outsider looking in at this time, particularly during the 2025 Indian Premier League, when he was not given a game against the Mumbai Indians (MI). Jacobs intends to use his IPL experience to qualify for the 2025 T20 World Cup as he gets ready to play for New Zealand in the forthcoming tri-series in Zimbabwe next month, which also features South Africa.
“The IPL was an amazing experience, and I got three months there to learn new facets of my game,” Jacobs said. “And I definitely think I’ve made those learnings and improvements. Obviously, implementing into my game is going to be a longer work in progress.
“But taking away from the technical stuff, there’s also a lot of mental learnings that I’ve got from it as well, which I know will change me just for the time being. So, hopefully, I can bring what I’ve learnt from there into the series.
“I mean, that (playing the T20 World Cup) is a massive goal for me. It would be a dream come true to go to that. And I guess for me, it’s just about controlling what I can control. And if that opportunity comes again, that would be pretty special to me.”
A possible debut versus South Africa, his birthplace, would be the first step towards achieving that objective. Before his family moved to New Zealand when he was about three years old, Jacobs was born in Pretoria. Before moving to Canterbury, where he made his senior T20 and List A debuts, he rose via the Auckland route system. But before the 2024–25 domestic season began, Jacobs went back to Auckland.
“I still like to see myself as a Kiwi,” Jacobs said. “I’ve been here for a very long time. But, yeah, I guess that part of it would be pretty cool if that was to be my debut against South Africa.
“I’m sure a lot of family who are over in South Africa and just my family that are here would find that pretty cool.”