Hashim Amla to captain and Mark Boucher to keep wickets for South Africa – Cricket News Update

Hashim Amla to captain and Mark Boucher to keep wickets for South Africa – Cricket News Update

Hashim Amla, the right-hand batsman, has been named as the interim skipper of the South African side for the tour of Australia. Amla will lead the one-day and Twenty20 team in AB de Villiers’ absence.

AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the series, after the batsman fractured his finger during a practice session for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The batsman will be out of action for six weeks. This will be Amla’s first series in charge as the 28-year-old has never led his side before.

South Africa is scheduled to tour Australia for a series comprising of two Twenty20s, three ODI’s and two Test matches. The series will start from Thursday, October 13, with a T20 match at Newlands, Cape Town.

South Africa's chairman of selectors, Andrew Hudson, was the one who revealed the squad for the series. Mark Boucher, the veteran wicket-keeper, has been included in the ODI outfit as a replacement for de Villiers. Boucher has been out of South Africa’s ODI team since playing against the West Indies at Port of Spain on June 3, 2010.

Hudson made public South Africa’s ODI team formation, and said, “We will probably go in with seven batsmen, including Boucher at No. 7, and we have kept all our bowling options that worked well at the World Cup. We will be able to go in with four specialist bowlers plus the back-up of Kallis, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis.”

Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn will not be part of Proteas Twenty20 squad as per the rotation policy of Cricket South Africa (CSA). Both players deserved rest and Richard Levi and Juan Theron are included in the team as their substitutes.

“We have left Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn out of the T20 squad as part of our rotation policy...we have a lot of cricket ahead of us, not just this season, but also in the next off-season with the tour to England as well as the World Twenty20, and we must manage our senior players sensibly,” confirmed Hudson.

Test squad for the South African team will be announced later.

One-day squad: Hashim Amla (captain), Graeme Smith, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Jean Paul Duminy, Francois du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Dale Steyn,  Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Robin Peterson, 

Twenty20 squad: Hashim Amla (captain), Graeme Smith, Johan Botha, Jean Paul Duminy, Colin Ingram, Richard Levi, David Miller, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Robin Peterson, Juan Theron, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Heino Kuhn, Wayne Parnell,