Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Tuesday (December 22) announced a revised Proteas squad after the latest round of COVID-19 testing ahead of their two-Test series against Sri Lanka.

The names of Beuran Hendricks and Keegan Petersen were missing from the squad of 17. Both of them didn’t enter the tour bubble when the playing group assembled on Saturday (December 19) after two positive COVID-19 results were detected last week.

CSA cannot, for reasons of doctor-patient confidentiality, disclose the names of infected players.

Hendricks had a good chance of being a part of the playing XI. He made his Test debut against England at the Wanderers in January this year and claimed a five-wicket haul in the second innings.

With Kagiso Rabada unavailable due to injury and Vernon Philander retired, Hendricks would have been a leading name alongside Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi in a three-pronged pace attack.

Petersen was unlikely to have featured in the playing XI unless one of the regular top-order batsmen was injured or unavailable.

The Test series between South Africa and Sri Lanka starts on Saturday (December 26) in Centurion. The second and final Test will be held in Johannesburg from January 3.

Revised South African Squad:

Quinton de Kock (capt), Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Sarel Erwee, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Dwaine Pretorius, Migael Pretorius, Lutho Sipamla, Glenton Stuurman, Rassie van der Dussen, Raynard van Tonder, Kyle Verreynne.

(Inputs from AFP)