De Bruyn earns Proteas call

Cricket365
December 14, 2016

Ahead of the three-match Test Series against Sri Lanka, Cricket South Africa announced their Test Squad, with Theunis de Bruyn set to make his debut.

Another surpise inclusion into the Test Squad is Wayne Parnell, who last played for the South African Test team back in 2014 against Australia.

Rilee Rossouw, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were all ruled out of the series due to injury.

“De Bruyn is the latest player to be rewarded for consistently good form at franchise and South Africa A level,” said CSA selection convener, Linda Zondi.

“He has an outstanding first-class career average of 48.73 (6 centuries) and has made 423 runs at 60.42 in this season’s Sunfoil Series four-day competition.

“As far as the overall squad is concerned they deserve the fullest vote of confidence for their performances in the two recent Test series against New Zealand and Australia and we are looking forward to more of the same against Sri Lanka.

Zondi also went onto heap praise on de Villiers for graciously relquinshing his captaincy duties onto Faf du Plessis.

“Credit to AB de Villiers for the smooth way the leadership transition has taken place,” Zondi said.

“We certainly look forward to having him back for the limited overs portion of the tour. Faf has done an outstanding job in the last two Test series and our leadership is in very good hands.”

Proteas Test squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Stephen Cook, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.