CRICKET POLL

Lungi Ngidi is back in the frame more than nine months after playing his last Test. Dane Paterson has held onto the place that made him a cult hero last summer. Corbin Bosch's personal fairytale has gained a chapter. Kagiso Rabada's recent drugs drama hasn't cost him his spot. But there is no room for Anrich Nortje, Gerald Coetzee and Nandre Burger.

South Africa's squad for the WTC final against Australia at Lord's, which starts on June 11, was announced on Tuesday - and was short on genuine surprises.

Coetzee, who has taken 14 wickets at 23.57 in his four Tests, has the strongest case to feel aggrieved. Nortje, who last played Test cricket in March 2023, has declined a CSA contract and is focused on playing in franchise leagues. Burger has taken 14 wickets at 16.92 in three Tests, but has yet to establish himself at this level.

A CSA release said the Test squad would assemble in Arundel on May 31 and play a warm-up match against Zimbabwe there from June 3 to 6. But, of the 15 players Shukri Conrad named in Johannesburg, eight - Bosch, Ngidi, Rabada, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs and Ryan Rickelton - are at the IPL, which has been rescheduled to end on June 3.

Ngidi's most recent Test was against West Indies in Port-of-Spain last August. He was ruled out of the home series against Pakistan in December and January with a groin injury.

Recalled for the tour to New Zealand last February more than four years after playing the last of his then three Tests, Paterson lit up last summer by taking 13 wickets - two five-wicket-hauls among them - at 16.92 in four matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

His value to the squad will only be enhanced by the fact that he is currently playing for Middlesex, whose home ground is Lord's. Paterson has taken eight wickets in his three first-class matches for the county.

Bosch burst onto the scene by taking a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket when he had Shan Masood caught in the gully in Centurion in December. He also scored an unbeaten 81 to help South Africa clinch a thrilling two-wicket win that put them in the WTC final.

Rabada, the leader of South Africa's attack and among the global game's premier players, fell from grace when he tested positive for a banned recreational drug in January. He returned home from the IPL on April 3 to serve a one-month ban.

South Africa WTC final squad: Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne.