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Piedt eyes Proteas spot

Pretoria - South African offspinner Dane Piedt is ready to fight for his place in the Proteas squad following his recovery from a lengthy injury layoff.

Piedt was named in the South Africa A side, who embark on a unofficial Test series against India A in July.

The spin-friendly pitches of the sub-continent will give Piedt the ideal opportunity to show he has fully recovered from the shoulder injury that kept him sidelined for close to three months.

Piedt had a superb debut for the Proteas against Zimbabwe last August when he took a wicket from his very first delivery at the highest level before finishing with a match-haul of eight for 152.

His stint with the national side was cruelly cut short when he dislocated his shoulder during a Cape Cobras Champions League T20 match in India.

"I am titanium now with two screws in my shoulder, it is keeping everything together, it was quite hectic surgery," Piedt said at a national spin-bowling camp in Pretoria this week.

"They told me I would be off for six weeks and it ended up being three months, which came at a quite a bad time but it is all over now, and I am 100 percent raring to go in India."

In his absence, Warriors' spinner Simon Harmer was equally impressive on his Proteas debut against the West Indies boasting with figures of 7/153.

Harmer and Aaron Phangiso have been selected ahead of Piedt for the Proteas' tour of Bangladesh in July and August.

However, Piedt was hopeful that he would soon be back to his best to stake a claim in the national side with the injury now a distant memory.

"Thankfully nothing is left out of my bowling arsenal and I am very much looking forward to playing cricket at a 100 percent again," Piedt said.

"There are a lot of sub-continent tours coming up and in my mind I tell myself that I will be used as a wicket-taking option.

"There are six Tests in the subcontinent so the quicker I am bowling well and taking wickets, the quicker I want to get into the national side."

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