AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel will miss out South Africa”s upcoming two-Test series against New Zealand due to injury. Faf Du Plessis has been named as the stand-in skipper for the series. However, Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander have been declared fit after missing out majority of last season succumbing to injury. Furthermore, Wayne Parnell returns back to the squad after the Australia series in 2014. This gives Protea”s bowling line-up lot of options including Chris Morris, Kyle Abbott and Kasigo Rabada.
South Africa will surely miss AB De Villiers as he will not play in his first series since he was made permanent Test captain following the England series.
“I”m naturally disappointed to miss the Test series against New Zealand, particularly because I have not missed a Test match due to injury since my debut in 2004,” de Villiers said. Morne Morkel has also been ruled out for around four to six weeks as he suffers from a bulging disk in his back. Both de Villiers and Morkel are expected to be fit before the start of the home ODI series against Australia in October.
This will also be South Africa”s first series since their board confirmed that they will be introducing a target on the number of players of colour in their teams in respect with a memorandum of understanding signed with the South African sports ministry.
South Africa squad: Faf Du Plessis (Captain), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Stephen Cook, Quinton de Kock (wk), Dean Elgar, JP Duminy, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Dane Piedt, Dale Steyn, Kasigo Rabada, Stiaan van Zyl
– by Yash Kashikar
