Three new faces in Proteas squad

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Cricket South Africa have announced three new caps to the Proteas squad that will tour the West Indies from 10 September to 6 October 2018.

Tumi Sekhukhune, Saarah Smith and Robin Searle will embark on their first international tour when the Proteas take on the Windies in a three-ODI and five-T20I series in Barbados and Trinidad.

“As a selection panel, we conducted a debrief from the England tour and also the successful Bangladesh tour prior to that. We discovered that there were a few areas where the team were falling short and we realized we had to look at different options and different types of skill-sets to try and set ourselves up well for the West Indies tour with the World Cup not far behind after that,” said national convenor of selectors Clinton du Preez

“It was quite a nice challenge that we faced when it came to making that final decision. We conducted the North vs South tournament which gave us an extra indication as to which players we could look at in our search for those extra skill-sets. It was a great exercise, we picked up a few players that have showed a lot of intent and potential, this is a really good opportunity for them to showcase their talent in the West Indies tour.”

Ayabonga Khaka has been ruled out of the tour after undergoing shoulder surgery. She will be out for four to six weeks as she targets a return to action in the World T20. Other team movements see the return of veteran wicketkeeper Trisha Chetty.

“We have always got very high hopes with every tour that comes along, especially with this West Indies tour coming along so close to the World T20. We have not settled on our final World Cup squad yet, we’re still looking at one or two other combinations,” concluded du Preez.

Squad: Dane van Niekerk (captain), Chloe Tryon, Laura Wolvaardt, Lizelle Lee, Sune Luus, Mignon du Preez, Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim Ismail, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Masabata Klaas, Zintle Mali, Trisha Chetty, Robyn Searle, Tumi Sekhukhune, Saarah Smith.

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