Smith to lead unchanged Proteas squad

Cricket South Africa have announced that Graeme Smith will be fit to lead his men on the three-Test tour of England later this summer

The 31-year-old underwent surgery on an injured ankle back in April but the left-handed opener has made a full recovery and will be in charge for the task of trying to beat Andrew Strauss's men to knock them off the top of the world rankings. Smith, who will play his 100th Test in the series opener at the Oval on July 19, has already captained the South Africans on two tours of England. He led his men to a 2-2 draw back in 2003 and walked away with a 2-1 victory five years later and the upcoming series is tipped to be a closely fought affair between the top two sides in the five-day game. The Johannesburg-born star has always enjoyed playing in England, averaging 72 on there shores, and CSA selection convener Andrew Hudson is confident that he will be able to do the business once more. "Graeme has been outstanding both as our leading runs scorer and as captain during our last two Test tours of England and I have every confidence he will continue that form," he said. The selectors have named an unchanged squad from the one that won in New Zealand earlier this year and Hudson believes they have earned the right to stay together as a unit. "The players fully deserve a vote of confidence after the outstanding manner in which they outplayed New Zealand away from home," he added. "We are now building up excellent depth in both the batting and bowling departments." South Africa Test squad: G Smith (captain), H Amla, M Boucher, M de Lange, AB de Villiers (vice-captain), JP Duminy, I Tahir, J Kallis, M Morkel, A Petersen, R Peterson, V Philander, J Rudolph, D Steyn, L Tsotsobe.