Du Plessis to lead South Africa 'A' squad

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Faf du Plessis, Chennai Super Kings' find of the IPL 5 season, has been rewarded by South Africa as he has been elevated to lead the country's 'A' team in the upcoming two four-day Tests against Sri Lanka A and the triangular one-day series in Zimbabwe.

Du Plessis, who plays for Nashua Titans in South Africa's domestic set-up, has been named to captain the national 'A' team in both the formats after his splendid display for two-time IPL winners Chennai Super Kings at the top of the order.

He has scored 398 runs in 13 games at a strike rate in excess of 130 till the end of the round-robin phase.

Also in the 24-man probables list picked by the SA selectors are four other IPL players -- Richard Levi of Mumbai Indians, David Miller of Kings XI Punjab, Wayne Parnell of Pune Warriors and Marchant de Lange of Kolkata Knight Riders -- as per the list of names displayed by Cricket South Africa in a media release.

"Du Plessis has been a leader for most of his cricketing life and the fact that he has not had much opportunity to do this at the franchise level is more a reflection on the fact that national players are not available for their franchises on a regular basis," commented CSA selection convener Andrew Hudson.

"Faf has been enormously impressive both in the Proteas' Castle Lager ODI squad and more recently in the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he has shown how much he has matured as an international cricketer," he added.

The four-day games against the visiting Lanka 'A' squad is to be held at the Sahara Stadium in Kingsmead, Durban from June 30 to July 10 and will be followed by the tri-series ODIs in Zimbabwe.