This is our best team outside the rested five players, says Conrad

PROTEAS coach Shukri Conrad has rested five key players for the upcoming Test tour to Zimbabwe later this month, where South Africa will play two Tests at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.

- ONGAMA GCWABE

The players are fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, batters Ryan Rickelton, Aiden Markram and Tristan Stubbs, who have been juggling all formats of international cricket and the various T20 leagues around the world.

The idea is to rest the key players so that they can return fresh for the new cycle, a cycle which includes Test tours to India and Pakistan, two sub-continent countries which are difficult to tour.

Conrad believes that the selected players are the next best for the Test side outside the five rested all-format players.

"We've rested five of our cross-format players because of a heavy workload post the Zim series, and this will be the next best group of players that could potentially play for South Africa in Test cricket.

"So, where does it fit in? We still got to put our best teams, and outside of the five guys that are being rested, I believe that this is the next best 15 or 16, so to speak," Conrad told the media yesterday.