South Africa announce squad for 1st Test against India

Cricket South Africa has announced its 15-member squad for the first Test between India and South Africa scheduled to start on 5th January in Cape Town.

The team will be captained by Faf du Plessis, who took over the captaincy of all three formats from AB de Villiers in September this year. De Villiers, who made a comeback to the Test team after nearly two years, captained the side against Zimbabwe in the historic one-off four-day pink ball Test at Port Elizabeth. Du Plessis was forced to sit out after suffering from a viral infection.

Dale Steyn, who has been aiming for a comeback from a lingering shoulder injury for quite a while, has been included in the squad, although he missed out on playing the Zimbabwe Test.

Quinton de Kock, who had suffered a hamstring injury during the Zimbabwe Test, had to miss out on most of the action in the one-off game, with AB de Villiers taking over the wicketkeeping gloves to fill in. After the game, De Villiers had given assurance that De Kock will be fit in time for the India series.

The fact that De Kock has been named in the squad without a backup wicketkeeper, which means that the 25-year-old is most likely to be fit for the first game.

Also returning to the 15-man squad is all-rounder Chris Morris, who had to give the four-day Test a miss after suffering from a groin strain in the RamSlam finals. Consequently, Duanne Olivier missed out.

The three-Test series is followed by six ODIs and two T20Is.

Here's the squad:

Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn.