Pretorius a step closer to playing for Proteas after call-up for SA A tour to Caribbean

Lhuan-dre Pretorius will head to the West Indies next month as part of the South Africa A squad, hoping to further accelerate his claims for a Proteas call-up, after a season in which he has enthralled local crowds. 

The 19-year-old, will put his start for English County Hampshire on hold, to participate in a tour that includes three One-Day matches and two Four-Day games against the West Indies A side.

After finishing as the leading run-scorer in the SA20, Pretorius scored 316 runs at an average of 45.14 with two centuries in the One-Day Cup and followed that with three hundreds in the Four-Day series, including one in the final, to help salvage a draw for the Titans against the Lions. 

Those performances put him in contention for a Proteas call up later this year when the senior national side plays a host of white ball matches in tours to Zimbabwe, England, Australia, Pakistan and India.

His South Africa A selection means Pretorius will have to delay joining Hampshire, who he signed with to play in the T20 Blast competition.

The start of that competition coincides with the South African tour. 

Director of national teams Enoch Nkwe confirmed on Saturday that Pretorius was selected to play in both the One-Day and Four-Day series’ in the Caribbean. 

The squad’s announcement was delayed after Dewald Brevis, who was originally pencilled in for the tour, had to be withdrawn after being drafted as an injury replacement by Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. 

Like his Titans teammate, Brevis also had a superb season across all three formats, reigniting his young career, which some had written off after he’d struggled in his first few years as a professional. 

Brevis who turns 22 later this month, finished as the second highest run-scorer in the domestic Four-Day series, and is certainly in contention to add to his two T20 International caps for the Proteas later this year. 

The South Africa A squad will be captained by Marques Ackerman, who missed a chunk of the KZN Dolphins season with a hamstring injury.

The group features players who’ve been rewarded for outstanding local seasons, including another Titans player, Rivaldo Moonsamy, and the Knights’ opener Lesego Senokwane.

There is also young talent including Dolphins fast bowler Tristan Luus and Titans off-spinner Schalk Engelbrecht who will make the trip. 

There are five players who’ve been capped at Proteas level in different formats including Tshepo Moreki and Ruan de Swardt who played on the ill-fated tour to New Zealand last year, while Bjorn Fortuin is the most experienced in the squad with 38 senior international matches under his belt. 

All the matches will be played at the Daren Sammy International Stadium on the island of St Lucia. The tour starts with the One-Day series on May 21. 

South Africa A Squad against West Indies A 

Marques Ackerman (capt), Okuhle Cele, Ruan de Swardt, Schalk Engelbrecht, Bjorn Fortuin, Jordan Hermann, Tristan Luus, Rivaldo Moonsamy, Tshepo Moreki, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Sinethemba Qeshile, Lesego Senokwane, Jason Smith, Prenelan Subrayen.