Tony de Zorzi ruled out of South Africa's Test series opener against Australia

DURBAN: Left-handed South Africa opener Tony de Zorzi has been ruled out of their home Test series opener against Australia, scheduled to be played here at the Kingsmead from October 9 to 13.

De Zorzi suffered a hamstring niggle while fielding during the Proteas' third ODI against Australia in Potchefstroom last week. Although Cricket South Africa (CSA) described the niggle as "mild", it is serious enough to keep the opener out of the opening fixture of their blockbuster Test series.

The 29-year-old opener is part of South Africa's 18-member preliminary squad, announced last week, and will be trimmed down to the usual 15 after their three-day intra-squad match, which starts tomorrow.

The CSA, however, has decided against replacing De Zorzi ahead of deciding their final 15-man group early next week.

For the unversed, De Zorzi is the fifth South African player after Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman and Kwena Maphaka to have suffered a hamstring injury in the last two months, while his absence from the series opener would pave the way for a debut for Marques Ackerman.

The top-order batter made the cut to the Proteas squad on the back of strong performances for South Africa A, the highlight of which was his career-best 256 against Bangladesh A.

Meanwhile, besides de Zorzi, South Africa's preliminary squad also features Rabada, who has also been recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during winter training.

South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad, while announcing the preliminary squad in a press conference, however, shared that the final decision on the pacer's selection for the series opener will be made after a three-day intra-squad match next week, as he insisted that the hosts would not take a call out of "desperation".

"We will give it [final decision on Rabada] as much time as humanly possible but we also don't want to take a call based on desperation," Conrad said.

"Based on how the three-day match plays out, a day or two after that, I reckon we will make a call," he added.

Contrary to Rabada, fellow pacers Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman and Kwena Maphaka, who are also dealing with hamstring problems, were not considered for the blockbuster series, which forms part of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27.

South Africa's preliminary squad for Australia Tests

Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs and Kyle Verreynne.