Proteas
Tahir dropped from Test squad
2012-12-13 10:38
Imran Tahir (Gallo Images)
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Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Thursday gave a full vote of confidence to the players
who won the Test series in Australia when they named a squad of 13 players for
the two-match Test Series to be played against New Zealand next month.
Spinner Imran Tahir has been dropped from the Proteas' squad after
failing to shine on the Proteas' recent Test tour of Australia, for the matches on January 2-6 (Cape
Town) and January 11-15 (Port Elizabeth).
“I don’t
think anybody will be surprised that we have kept faith with the 11 players who
did duty in the winning Test match against Australia at Perth as well as Rory
Kleinveldt and Jacques Rudolph, who played two Test matches each,” commented
CSA selection convener Andrew Hudson.
“There is
every indication at this stage that Jacques Kallis will be fully fit to fill
his all-rounder’s role which will get us back to the balance that has served us
so well this year with a combination of seven specialist batsmen and five
specialist bowlers.
“Being able
to field seven specialist batsmen was a key factor in both the Test series
successes against England and Australia, most notably at Adelaide where we had
to bat long and deep to get ourselves out of trouble.
“AB de
Villiers has kept wicket exceptionally well since taking the gloves from Mark
Boucher and having two quality all-rounders among our top five batsmen has
added a great deal to the side.
“Thami
Tsolekile remains our back-up wicketkeeper should the need arise.
“It was a
tough call to leave out Imran Tahir but we have to acknowledge that Robin
Peterson put up an outstanding performance at Perth where he made a significant
contribution to our victory. Imran remains very much in our plans going
forward.
Proteas' Test squad:
Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar,
Jacques Kallis, Rory Kleinveldt, Morne Morkel, Alviro Petersen, Robin Petersen, Vernon Philander, Jacques Rudolph, Dale Steyn
HAVE YOUR SAY: Good move dropping Imran Tahir? Is Robin Petersen the man for the job or is there another spinner you'd have liked to have seen picked? Send your thoughts to
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