Stiaan van Zyl will have an early sighting of the opposition he is expected to make his Test debut against when he plays for the South African Invitation XI against West Indians in a three-day tour match next week. Van Zyl is the only member of the Test squad who will play in the practice match in Benoni, having last been in action six weeks ago.
Van Zyl, who is expected to take JP Duminy’s place at No.7 in the Test team until Duminy is cleared of his knee problem, has been sidelined with a leg injury since October 24. Rory Kleinveldt, who has been nursing a groin strain, will also make a comeback. So will left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks, whose stress fracture has kept him on the bench since August. Both Kleinveldt and Hendricks have been named in South Africa’s 30-man preliminary World Cup squad.
“All three players have been short of match practice after coming back from injury and they need time in the middle,” Vincent Barnes, CSA’s high performance manager, said.
The rest of the Invitation XI includes one member of the Under-19 World Cup winning squad, wicket-keeper-batsman Clyde Fortuin, and a selection of promising players from the provincial and franchise system. The squad is laden with keepers including Titans’ Mangaliso Mosehle and Gauteng opening batsman Dominic Hendricks, who will lead the side following a hot streak of form in the amateur competition. Hendricks has scored three fifties and a century from his last eight first-class innings. Kwa-Zulu Natal fast bowler Daryn Dupavillon, who is second in the three-day cup bowling charts with 23 wickets at 17.69 this summer is also in the squad.
The tour match will not have first-class status so all 13 squad members will have time in the middle.
SA Invitation XI squad Dominic Hendricks (capt), Gihahn Cloete, Daryn Dupavillon, Rabian Engelbrecht, Clyde Fortuin, Beuran Hendricks, Rory Kleinveldt, Aviwe Mgijima, Mangaliso Mosehle, Jerry Nqolo, Keegan Petersen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Stiaan van Zyl