South Africa announce 2015 World Cup squad; 7 out of 15 have never played at the World Cup

The South African World Cup squad pose for a picture

The African nation of South Africa have revealed their 15-man squad for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The World Cup, which will be held from February to March, gives a good chance for South Africa to win their maiden World Cup.

The South African team have been called ‘chokers’ as they have more often than not, failed at the crucial stages of the biggest cricket tournament of the world.

The 2015 edition brings a good chance for the team to win their first ever cricket World Cup as the bouncy pitches and the conditions will be favourable to the South African players.

AB de Villiers has been chosen as the man to represent the peninsular nation at the tournament. Lonwabo Tsotsobe was excluded from the squad despite indications that he would be set for a recall to the one-day side.

Quinton de Kock, who is nursing an ankle ligament injury, was the surprise inclusion as he is not expected to be fit till after South Africa’s first two matches. Captain de Villiers is expected to don the wicket keeper’s role till then, at the very least.

South Africa’s coach Russell Domingo hopes that his team will be challenging for the trophy. He said, “It's the first fifty-over World Cup I have been involved in and it's an opportunity to do what no other South African side has done. We are aware of the challenges and the pressures. I wish I could tell everybody we are going to win it, but I can't. There will be five or six teams challenging for the trophy and hopefully we will be one of those challenging.”

Captain AB de Villiers didn’t downplay his side’s chances and remained upbeat ahead of the two-month tournament. He said, “We do feel pressure, it's a huge responsibility. We desperately want to win a World Cup and bring it home. We've been playing some good cricket and we are confident. We feel we have got a really good chance.”

De Villiers, who will play his third World Cup, is one of only eight players to have represented South Africa at the tournament before with 7 of the squad members being World Cup rookies. But, the captain thinks his team has got the right players. He said, “We've got the right players to win, we've just got to find a way to do that.”

South Africa squad: AB de Villiers (captain), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn