Anrich Nortje is back to South Africa’s T20I squad after having missed out on international cricket since the T20 World Cup 2021 due to hip and back injury. Young gun Tristain Stubbs has earned a maiden call-up.
The 16-member full-strength squad features all the players who missed the Bangladesh Test to participate in the IPL. 21-year-old Tristian Stubbs was the major highlight in South Africa’s 16-member strong contingent picked for their five-match away T20I series against India, beginning June 9. Stubbs, who recently made his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians, had grabbed the headlines earlier for his stellar show in the domestic T20 competition, aggregating 293 runs in seven matches for the Warriors at an average of 48.83 and a strike-rate of 183.12.
Overall, he has scored 508 T20 runs at an average and strike-rate of 33.86 and 155.82 respectively and a highest of 80*. Earlier this month, he scored 17* and 39* for South Africa A against the Zimbabwe XI.
Meanwhile, Anrich Nortje too, returns to the fold after he was out of action for a major part of the season with hip and back injury. The right-arm quick regained his match-fitness only recently, and has played in just five of Delhi Capitals’ 13 games in the IPL 2022, bagging seven wickets at 25.71.
The Temba Bavuma led side features seasoned campaigners in Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, alongside young guns in Marco Jansen and Stubbs.
Dwaine Pretorius will be the side’s leading all-rounder. Left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell makes a return after having last played a T20I five years ago.
“This is the Proteas like we have not seen them in a long time. The injection of the IPL players means that we will have a team that’s ready to fire on all cylinders immediately and has vast experience of the conditions that we will be playing in.
“The country can also join us in a collective sigh of relief at the return of Anrich Nortje, who has been working hard to recover from a frustrating injury. The National Selection Panel and I are really excited to watch our full strength Proteas take on the world’s number one T20 team.”
Victor Mpitsang, South Africa’s selection convener said in a press-release on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, former captain Faf du Plessis continues to be a notable absentee from the setup. Having retired from the Test format last year, the 37-year-old has been a consistent performer in various Global T20 leagues and has made himself available for white-ball selection. With 399 runs from 13 innings in IPL 2022, the Royal Challengers’ Bangalore skipper is his team’s leading run-scorer in their side’s race to the playoffs. Dewald Brevis, the leading batter in the ICC Under 19 World Cup 2022 in the Caribbean earlier this year, was also overlooked.
Delhi will host the first India-South Africa T20I on June 9, followed by Cuttack (June 12), Visakhapatnam (June 14), Rajkot (June 17) and Bengaluru (June 19). The series will serve as a preparation for the two teams in build-up to the T20 World Cup 2022 to be played in October-November in Australia.
South Africa T20I Squad
Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen
