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SA name second string team for T20I series against Pakistan

By Our Correspondent
January 20, 2021

KARACHI: South Africa on Tuesday announced a second string team for next month’s three-match Twenty20 International series against Pakistan.

The South Africans were forced to bring in their second tier cricketers in the squad in order to allow the top players, who are part of the squad that will play a two-Test series against Pakistan, to be back home in time to feature in the Tests against Australia.

Heinrich Klaasen will lead South Africa’s T20 squad in the three-match series against Pakistan to be played in Lahore from February 11-14. He will lead the national team for the first time.

According to Cricket South Africa, the strategy forms part of the measures put in place by CSA to ensure that the Test squad, captained by Quinton de Kock, can return to South Africa and satisfy the overseas travel Covid-19 quarantine protocol ahead of that team’s three-match, Test Series against Australia beginning in April.

CSA Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has compelled sporting bodies to find innovative ways of ensuring tours and sporting events take place as planned or with as little disruption to revised plans as possible. We are not exempt from that, and have had to do a bit of outside-of-the-box thinking to ensure that we are fully prepared for a home Test tour against Australia, while having an exciting T20 series to compete in, in Pakistan.

“We’re in the final stages of concluding plans for how the coaching and support staff will also be managed for the two tours. We will share those details when they have been finalised.

“It’s an example of the measures that some cricket nations will have to put in place to ensure that they can squeeze more than one tour in a period of three or four months, while fulfilling COVID-19 protocol obligations.”

The T20 squad boasts several new faces as the Proteas continue to rebuild after the losses of numerous players to retirement in recent times.

Okuhle Cele, Ryan Rickleton, Nandre Burger and Jacques Snyman receive their maiden national team call-ups, while Glenton Stuurman will return to the national team after a left quadriceps muscle strain saw him released from the Test squad ahead of the start of the second match against Sri Lanka and Johannesburg.

Dwaine Pretorius, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lutho Sipamla and George Linde from the Test, squad have also been included for the T20 fixtures. They, along with Andile Phehlukwayo, Reeza Hendricks and JonJon Smuts, will offer the required experience that the predominantly youthful squad will require to excel in the Lahore.

Schedule of the T20 series:

11 February – 1st T20I, Lahore

13 February – 2nd T20I, Lahore

14 February – 3rd T20I, Lahore.