Hashim Amla To Captain South Africa Against Australia

Hashim Amla will lead South Africa in their limited overs series against Australia. Originally, it was AB de Villiers who was to captain the Proteas in the ODIs and the T20Is, but an untimely injury to his finger meant that the selectors had to look at other options.

Amla has never captained at the international before this. He had himself taken himself off the race for the captaincy of the South African team after Graeme Smith had resigned from the role in the shorter version of the game, which is when the captaincy went to de Villiers.

South Africa will host Australia in two T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches. All the South Africa v Australia games will be live on SuperSport TV. The South Africa v Australia series 2011 schedule can be found here.

Amla will lead the T20I side which will have only one new-comer, Cobras’ Richard Levi. Levi is currently in India, playing in the Champions League T20 for the Cobras. Other than that, there is also place for Heino Kuhn, who will keep the wickets. Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn have not been picked for the T20 version of the game.

David Miller gets back his spot in the ODIs while Johan Botha, overlooked for the captaincy again, will play only in the ODIs.

ODI squad

Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Jacques Kallis, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

T20 squad

Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, JP Duminy, Colin Ingram, Heino Kuhn, Richard Levi, David Miller, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Graeme Smith, Rusty Theron, Lonwabo Tsotsobe