The first match takes place in Durban on Friday, December 21; the second in East London on Sunday, December 23; and the final one in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, December 26.
“AB de Villiers remains our first-choice captain in this format,” commented CSA selection convener Andrew Hudson, “but AB is one of the players we need to rotate in the interest of his workload across all three formats and we want to have one captain for the entire series.”
Hudson also named three new caps in Titans opening batsman Henry Davids and the Highveld Lions duo of Quinton de Kock, still only 19-years-old, and Aaron Phangiso. Their franchise team-mate, Chris Morris, is technically also a new cap as the T20 series he played for the Proteas against Zimbabwe earlier this year was an unofficial one.
“I believe
we have chosen an extremely exciting squad of 15 players which will enable us
both to rotate senior players and to provide opportunity to a new group of
players,” Hudson said.
“All the players have been showing excellent form of late either in the Champions League T20 or the Momentum One Day Cup and it has been very encouraging to take note of this.
“We could not consider JP Duminy, Colin Ingram and Albie Morkel because of injury while we decided to rest Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla. We also did not consider Johan Botha for selection.
“This squad
is a reflection of the tremendous depth that is developing in our franchise
cricket. Even without some of our senior Proteas and the inclusion of a number
of new caps there is still a good deal of experience in this squad.”
Faf du Plessis (captain), Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
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