South Africa have named five uncapped cricketers for their two-match Test series against Zimbabwe, starting June 28. 19-year-old Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who had a breakout season with the bat, eventually earned his spot in the 16-member squad for the Zimbabwe series. With several seniors rested, Lhuan-dre may very well open the innings alongside Tony de Zorzi.
Dewald Brevis, Lesego Senokwane, Codi Yusuf and Prenelan Subrayen are the four others in line to make their Test debuts. Brevis was previously called up to the Test squad when Temba Bavuma was dealing with an injury. However, he didn’t get the opportunity to debut in the Bangladesh series. Nevertheless, he worked hard in domestic cricket and showed consistency to earn a call-up for the Zimbabwe tour.
“Dewald deserves a lot of credit for how he has progressed over the past 12 months. He's shown real growth and maturity in the longer format, and it's encouraging to see him evolving into a more complete cricketer,” South Africa coach Shukri Conrad said in a statement.
Conrad also revealed the reason for not picking Gerald Coetzee for the Zimbabwe series. The ace pacer has done well in white-ball cricket but couldn’t cement his position in the longest format. Speaking on the same, Conrad mentioned that Coerzee is part of the bigger plan and his injury concerns have ruled him out of the Zimbabwe series.
“With Gerald, it's part of a bigger plan to help him better handle the physical demands of red-ball cricket. The idea is to give him the best chance to avoid a recurrence of the injuries that have kept him out of Test cricket since the tour against Sri Lanka. His recent performances in T20s have been really encouraging, but the focus is on his long-term growth and ensuring he stays fit across all formats,” Conrad said.
South Africa squad for two-match Zimbabwe series
Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Tony de Zorzi, Zubayr Hamza, Lesego Senokwane, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kyle Verreynne, Corbin Bosch, Wiaan Mulder, Prenelan Subrayen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Lungi Ngidi, Codi Yusuf.