Africa-Press – South-Africa. Five uncapped players, including 19-year-old breakout star Lhuan-dre Pretorius, were included in the 16-man Proteas squad for the two Tests against Zimbabwe later this month.
Lesego Senokwane, who will join the Titans next season, the Lions’ Codi Yusuf, Prenelan Subrayen and Dewald Brevis are the other new faces for a short series that is not part of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle.
The two Tests will be played in Bulawayo, with the first match starting on June 28.
Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs are all being rested from the series, with head coach Shukri Conrad giving opportunities to players who all had excellent domestic seasons last summer.
“We’ve opted to rest some players to manage their workload ahead of a busy season,” said Conrad.
Pretorius had a stunning season across all three formats, finishing the season with a century for the Titans for the Four-Day Series final at the Wanderers.
He scored 436 runs in seven innings that included three hundreds, one of which came in his debut first class innings at St George’s Park.
“We’ve been closely monitoring performances in domestic cricket, and it’s great to see players like Lhuan-dré, Lesego, and Codi breaking through.”
Senokwane made steady progress in the last three seasons for Free State, earning himself a call-up to the SA A squad for its tour of the West Indies.
His move to the Titans is a reflection of the improvement he’s made, and a national selection at this stage of the 28-year-old opener’s career is justified.
It’s been a similar tale for Yusuf, who’s bustling style may not fit with what SA usually expects from fast bowlers, but whose incremental improvement in the past few seasons has made him a reliable bowler for the Lions.
He was signed by Durham for the English County season and in four matches has taken 17 wickets.
Brevis and Subrayen were outstanding for their provinces, the Titans and Dolphins respectively.
Brevis finished as the second highest run-scorer and with an aggregate of 573 runs in last season’s Four-Day series, while Subrayen picked up 34 wickets for the Dolphins, finishing one behind leading wicket-taker Shaun von Berg. On Wednesday he helped bowl the SA A side to victory over West Indies A in St Lucia, picking up 5/82 in the home side’s second innings.
Conrad also recalled Zubayr Hamza, who had an excellent season for the Lions which culminated in a hundred in the Four-Day final, while Matthew Breetzke, who made a duck on debut in Bangladesh last year, gets a chance to put some runs next to his name in the Test format.
SA SQUAD FOR ZIMBABWE
Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Corbin Bosch, Tony de Zorzi, Zubayr Hamza, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Lhuan-dré Pretorius, Lesego Senokwane, Prenelan Subrayen, Kyle Verreynne, Codi Yusuf.
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