Steyn returns to long-form cricket

JOHANNESBURG: Dale Steyn will return to long-format cricket for the first time in over a year when a South African Invitational XI hosts Zimbabwe for a three-day day-night match in Paarl on December 20.
Steyn is one of four Proteas players, alongside AB de Villiers, Chris Morris and Temba Bavuma, to be named in the side. Steyn and Morris will be looking to prove their fitness in the longer format ahead of the one-off Test between South Africa and Zimbabwe in Port Elizabeth on Boxing Day. Both have been involved in the Titans’ Ram Slam T20 campaign, but are yet to play a multi-day match since coming through their respective injuries.
Meanwhile, de Villiers has played just one first-class match since taking more than a year and a half out of the longer format, and has been given an opportunity to press his case for inclusion in a batting line-up that scored plenty of runs in the two-match series against Bangladesh. The one batsman who failed to make a hundred in the series, Bavuma, will hope to have more time in the middle in the warm-up against Zimbabwe.
SA Invitation XI squad: Dominic Hendricks (capt), Temba Bavuma, Tladi Bokako, Michael Cohen, AB de Villiers, Isaac Dikgale, Leus du Plooy, Zubayr Hamza, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rapulana, Kelly Smuts, Dale Steyn, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Shaun von Berg, Lizaad Williams.