Former Proteas vice-captain Jacques Kallis is back in the South African Test squad that leaves on Tuesday for a tour of Pakistan.
Announcing the squad on Thursday morning, convener of selectors Joubert Strydom said relations with Kallis had returned to normal, after the turmoil following the announcement of the squad for the ICC World Twenty20 tournament.
Kallis, bitterly disappointed at being left out of the squad, resigned as vice-captain and said he was considering his future in cricket.
”He’s had various discussions with Gerald [Majola, chief executive of Cricket South Africa] and Gerald came away from those very comfortable and very happy. On a personal basis, from the word go my relationship with him always been good.
”Mickey [Arthur, Proteas coach] has also been in contact with him, and we know that he’s training very, very hard. It’s not an issue. He’s ready to go,” said Strydom.
He said there would probably be two vice-captains, one for the Test squad and one for the one-day squad.
”The vice-captain for the Test squad will probably be for the whole season, and the one-day vice-captain for the one-day side will probably just be for the next series. We will announce their names after Gerald has discussed it with the individuals involved.”
JP Duminy, who was last in the Test squad in 2004, has been recalled to the team, although he is unlikely to play in Pakistan.
”He’s a guy with a lot of talent. We’d like to have him there for the experience. He’s covering for five and six in the batting line-up,” said Strydom. He said the selectors had weighed up the benefits of Duminy playing in the domestic Supersport series, or joining the South Africa A side for the one-day series against India A, but had decided that the best thing would be for him to travel to Pakistan with the squad.
”We want him to get a taste of the Test environment in Pakistan,” he said.
Arthur said he was very happy to have a settled squad.
”We’ve got an experienced batting line-up,” he said.
”We’ve got the experience of Ashwell [Prince] who came through fantastically last year. We’ve obviously also got the experience of Smith, Kallis, Gibbs. Hashim [Amla] is a very exciting talent and so is AB de Villiers, and they’re probably the rookies in the squad, and they’ll be batting at three and six.
”We’ve got the ability now to take 20 wickets. Morne Morkel has been outstanding for us, he’s a huge talent. We saw what Dale Steyn did last year — we had two five-wicket hauls from him and the spin of Paul Harris was also encouraging. So we’re starting to settle on a unit that has a lot of experience and also has a bit of youthful exuberance, so I’m quite comfortable that we’ve got a squad that will get us to where we want to be.”
The squad for the one-day series against Pakistan will be announced next week. – Sapa
Squad:
Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Paul Harris, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Dale Steyn.