Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn make South Africa T20 return for Pakistan series

Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn return to the South Africa T20 squad for the two-match series against Pakistan to be played in the United Arab Emirates next month.

"Hashim is a world-class player across all the formats," commented Cricket South Africa (CSA) selection convener Andrew Hudson in a media release on Friday. "His experience and stability at the top of the order are qualities that we believe will strengthen the squad in a key area.

Amla played the last of his 15 T20 International matches at the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka just over a year ago before taking a break from this format at his own request.

Amla takes the place of Farhaan Behardien while Steyn comes back in place of Rory Kleinveldt.

Chris Morris is the other casualty with the squad being reduced from 16 to 15 players.

"It is great to have Dale back," added Hudson, "as it means we now have all our senior players available again.

"There was also some encouraging form shown at the Champions League T20, notably by Henry Davids, who was unquestionably the batsman of the tournament until the Titans were knocked out."

T20 squad: Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, David Wiese.