De Villiers did open the batting during the recent T20 series away to Bangladesh but the decision to hand the gloves to De Villiers, who has made known his desire not to keep wicket due to on-going back problems, has been made with one eye on next year’s T20 World Cup in India.
The Proteas take on New Zealand in the first T20 match at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead in Durban on Friday and De Villiers will open the batting with Hashim Amla after Quinton de Kock’s recent run of poor form saw the young wicketkeeper/batsman dropped from South Africa’s limited-overs squads.
Sunfoil Dolphins’ keeper Morne van Wyk, an opening batsman himself, has been included in South Africa’s squads for the T20 series and the three-match one-day international series’ against New Zealand but it appears that he will have to wait until the ODI series before playing for the Proteas again.
