Test Squad: Temba Bavuma (captain), Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton
As part of the CSA’s restructuring of the leadership group, Temba Bavuma has been appointed as South Africa’s new Test captain, succeeding Dean Elgar. With the upcoming series against the West Indies, Bavuma, who was retained as the ODI skipper, will take over as Test captain. However, the 32-year-old will step down as T20I captain, the CSA confirmed on Friday (February 17). The new T20I captain will be unveiled along with the white-ball squads for the series against the West Indies. Dean Elgar, who has led South Africa in 15 Test matches since succeeding Quinton de Kock as captain in 2021, will still be eligible to play.
Director of Cricket (DoC) Enoch Nkwe made the following statement regarding the leadership changes: “Cricket South Africa would like to welcome Temba as the new captain of the Proteas Men’s national squad. He is a player with extensive experience serving as captain, both domestically and internationally, having been chosen to lead the ODI and T20I teams in March 2021. After some excellent work by his predecessor Dean during the same time, we have faith that he will live up to all of our expectations and help lead the team forward. I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dean for his dedication to the position over the past two years. He assisted the team in navigating some rough seas and helped them place themselves favorably on the ICC World Test Championship table.
The work that both men have done for the Proteas as a whole has made us proud, and we look forward to the next stage in what will be a new era for the Proteas under the direction of dual coaches Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter. Top-order batsman Tony de Zorzi received his first Test call-up from South Africa after scoring 489 runs at a 122.25 average in the national four-day tournament. Senuran Muthusamy, who last played in 2019, rejoins the team, and Keegan Petersen also makes a comeback after recovering from a hamstring injury.
According to Test head coach Conrad, we feel that we have chosen the strongest group for this series against a strong West Indies side that just defeated Zimbabwe. We appreciate that players like Keegan Petersen are healthy and prepared to compete again after an injury. He will bring some much-needed stability to the batting, which has already benefited from Aiden Markram’s comeback and Tony de Zorzi’s first call-up. We anticipate a strong series between two up-and-coming teams, and we anticipate that it will only get better as we spend more time as a team in the coming weeks and months.
As part of the restructuring, the CSA is also reevaluating the selection committee and its practices, and Victor Mpitsang has been released from his duties as National Convenor of Selectors. The head coaches will have a major influence on squad selection as part of the interim structure. The WTC’s two-match Test series against the West Indies gets underway on February 28. A three-match ODI series commencing on March 16 and three Twenty20 Internationals starting on March 25 will come after this.
