Du Plessis to captain South Africa 'A'

Faf du Plessis, Chennai Super Kings' find of the IPL 5 season, has been rewarded by South Africa with captaincy of 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, was named captain of 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 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 announced by South Africa's 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.

"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 will be held at the Sahara Stadium in Kingsmead, Durban, from June 30 to July 10 and will be followed by the ODI tri-series in Zimbabwe.