South Africa on Saturday announced their squad for the three-match T20I series against England and legendary pacer Dale Steyn is set to make his international comeback. The first T20I will be played on February 12 at the Buffalo Park in Eastern Cape.
Steyn last played an international fixture in March last year when he appeared for the Proteas in a T20I game against Sri Lanka before suffering a shoulder injury.
The injury had cost the36-year-old his chance to play the ICC World Cup last year in England and kept himself out of action for almost 10 months.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock will lead the team again. According to Cricket South Africa (CSA) Director of Cricket Graeme Smith said he was given the role following his exemplary leadership in the series against India.
“We are pleased with the group that we have selected for this upcoming T20 series. We have once again taken the opportunity to reward some of the hard workers of our domestic franchise system while some of our key senior players continue with their much-needed rest period and we have again, put our faith in Quinton (de Kock) to lead this group of exciting cricketers, picking up where he left off in India where he showed exemplary leadership,” the official website of CSA quoted Smith as saying.
Smith further stated that the board has already started identifying players who will be included in the squad for the ICC T20I World Cup, to be played later this year in Australia.
“With a T20 World Cup not too far away, we have begun the process of identifying several players whom we will be looking at over a
period of time and hope that by the time September comes along, we will have the best possible squad of 15 representing South Africa,” the former South Africa captain said.
The Proteas are currently engaged in a three-match ODI series against England after suffering a 1-3 humiliation at the hands of the same opponent in a three-match Test series. South Africa are leading the ODI series 1-0.