Du Plessis To Captain South Africa In Twenty20 Series

Du Plessis To Captain South Africa In Twenty20 Series

Francois du Plessis made his Test debut during the recent tour of Australia and will now captain the Twenty20 side against New Zealand

©REUTERS / Action Images

Francois du Plessis will captain South Africa in their three-match Twenty20 International series against New Zealand as AB de Villiers is rested.

South Africa's rotation policy will see de Villiers step down as captain with Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla absent as four uncapped players have been included the squad.

They are batsmen Henry Davids and Quinton de Kock, fast bowler Chris Morris and left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso. All four players impressed during the Champions League Twenty20, Davids for Nashua Titans and the other three for the Warriors.

“AB de Villiers remains our first-choice captain in this format but AB is one of the players we need to rotate in the interest of his workload across all three formats and we want to have one captain for the entire series," Cricket South Africa (CSA) selection convener Andrew Hudson said.

"I believe we have chosen an extremely exciting squad of 15 players which will enable us both to rotate senior players and to provide opportunity to a new group of players,” Hudson said. “All the players have been showing excellent form of late either in the Champions League T20 or the Momentum One-Day Cup and it has been very encouraging to take note of this.

"We could not consider JP Duminy, Colin Ingram and Albie Morkel because of injury while we decided to rest Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla. We also did not consider Johan Botha for selection.

"This squad is a reflection of the tremendous depth that is developing in our franchise cricket. Even without some of our senior Proteas and the inclusion of a number of new caps there is still a good deal of experience in this squad."

South Africa T20I squad: Francois du Plessis (captain), Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe