De Villiers to keep wicket in England Tests

AB de Villiers will don the wicketkeeping gloves for South Africa in the first two Tests of their upcoming home series against England.
The CSA selectors did not name any other wicketkeeper in the 13-player squad they picked for the first Test in Durban (December 26-30) and the second in Cape Town (January 2-6). They left out Dane Vilas, who had a poor tour of India with both bat and gloves, and didn't select Quinton de Kock, who made two hundreds in the ODI series that preceded the Tests.

De Villiers kept wicket in two Tests against West Indies at the turn of the year, when de Kock was injured, but had not taken the gloves in a Test match before that since the home series against Australia in February-March 2014. In all, de Villiers has kept wicket in 23 of his 102 Tests.

With Vernon Philander out with an ankle injury, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott were the four seamers in South Africa's squad, as expected. Dane Piedt was the only specialist spinner, with Imran Tahir and Simon Harmer, who both toured India, left out. Stiaan van Zyl kept his place in the squad, and is expected to resume his place at the top of the order alongside Dean Elgar, with Temba Bavuma moving into the middle order.