Ab de Villiers Returns to International Cricket, Dane Patterson gets Maiden Call-up

South Africa have announced their 14-member squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against Bangladesh which gets underway on 15th October.

Young Dane Patterson has received his maiden ODI call-up after he recently made his debut against England in the T20I format. While announcing the team, Cricket South Africa’s convenor of selectors, Linda Zondi said,

“Dane did very well in the T20 International Series against England earlier this year, particularly when it came to death bowling,” said Linda Zondi, CSA’s convenor of selectors on Wednesday (October 4). “We now want to see if he can do a similar job in the 50 overs format.

Middle-order batsman JP Duminy who recently announced his retirement from Test cricket has managed to keep his place in the team but the biggest news that came from the announcement is the return of Mr. 360, Ab de Villiers.

The 33-year old former Protea captain, who stepped down from captaincy in the limited overs format after the series loss against England in the shortest format of the game (T20Is) will be seen in action after three months and will to play with a bit more freedom, as Faf du Plessis will lead the team.

“Faf du Plessis will lead the Proteas now that he has taken over the captaincy from AB de Villiers in the ODI format. This is the start of our campaign to begin preparing our squad for the 2019 ICC World Cup.” said Zondi.

Morne Morkel and Chris Morris will miss the ODI series due to injuries, while the left-arm-spinner Keshav Maharaj is dropped from the squad that played the Champions Trophy in England in June earlier this year.

Here’s South Africa’s 14-member squad:

Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada.