As a result, De Villiers was named as wicketkeeper on Thursday, with wicketkeeper-batsmen Quinton de Kock and Dane Vilas selected for the South Africa A side that will face England in its second and final warm-up match.

While Temba Bavuma showed admirable grit when he opened the batting in the final test against India, Cricket South Africa confirmed Stiaan van Zyl would open with Dean Elgar against England, and Bavuma would return to a more familiar role in the middle order.

"One of the issues that concerned us during the tour to India was the lack of depth to our batting, particularly in the lower order, and the change in AB's role means that we can now have a specialist batsman at No. 7," Linda Zondi, convenor of selectors, said.

"We now feel that the side has a much better balance about it without in any way reducing the tactical options available to our captain, Hashim Amla."