CRICKET : South Africa have included four uncapped players in their 15-man squad for the first Test against England – with injured all-rounder Jacques Kallis named despite being a fitness doubt.
South Africa have included four uncapped players in their 15-man squad for the first Test against England – with injured all-rounder Jacques Kallis named despite being a fitness doubt.
Young fast bowler Wayne Parnell and all-rounder Ryan McClaren, team-mates at Kent last season, in-form batsman Alviro Petersen and paceman Friedel de Wet are the quartet involved for the Centurion opener.
“We have chosen an enlarged squad to cover all our options,” said selection convener Mike Procter. “Jacques Kallis is obviously a very big number in our Test side and providing cover for him requires more than one player.”
He added: “Alviro Petersen deserves his call-up both for the impressive way he has returned to international cricket and the weight of runs he has made in domestic cricket. He is able to cover all of the top six batting positions.
“Ryan McLaren provides us with an all-rounder if we want to go down that route and we want both Wayne Parnell and Friedel de Wet to work in the national squad set-up.”
Kallis’ fractured rib ruled him out of the one-day series and if he makes the start of the series on December 16 it will be, in all likelihood, as a specialist batsman.
Captain Graeme Smith returns after missing the Proteas’ previous Test against Australia earlier this year while Makhaya Ntini is set for his 100th Test appearance.
Squad: GC Smith (captain), HM Amla, MV Boucher (wkt), AB de Villiers, F de Wet, JP Duminy, PL Harris, JH Kallis, R McLaren, M Morkel, M Ntini, WD Parnell, AN Petersen, AG Prince, DW Steyn.
