Thursday 26 / December / 2024
Melbourne: Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen, who had been rested from the ongoing series against Australia at home, have been recalled, while left-arm spinner George Linde has received a maiden ODI call-up in South Africa's 15-member ODI squad for their three-match series in India.
Du Plessis and Van der Dussen had featured in the three T20Is against Australia last month, but had been rested for the ODI series. The former, who quit from captaincy across formats last month, hasn't played an ODI game since the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019, where he'd scored a match-winning hundred against Australia in South Africa's last round-robin fixture.
Van der Dussen has been a consistent performer for South Africa ever since his debut last year, having aggregated 707 runs at 70.70 from 21 games thus far and was a part of the ODI series against England last month.
George Linde, the left-arm spinner, who had made his international debut during the Test series against India in October last year, has received a maiden ODI call-up. The 28-year-old replaces left-arm wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who has opted out of the tour as he awaits the birth of his first child.
Opening batsman Janneman Malan, has been dropped, after he was dismissed for a golden duck on his ODI debut in Paarl last week, while Heinrich Klaasen and Kyle Verreynne have retained their places after match-winning contributions.
"It is exciting to see the amount of competition for spots that we have within the team and in the franchises, it's a good headache for us as selectors to have," Linda Zondi, Cricket South Africa's independent selector, said. "We are satisfied with our picks for what will certainly be a challenging tour of India. We saw some promising performances last year from the T20 squad that travelled there and we wanted to give a player like George Linde another crack at the conditions which seemed to really suit him.
"We are also particularly pleased with the balance of youth and experience that we have achieved while our young leadership group continues to establish itself. We are looking forward to some good performances in this relatively short tour."
South Africa won the first ODI against Australia by 74 runs and have two more games to play in Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom respectively. The three-match series against India commences on 12 March in Lucknow.
Full squad: Quinton de Kock (C & WK), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Jon-Jon Smuts, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lundi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Anrich Nortje, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj
