David Bedingham has returned to the Western Province squad for the T20 Challenge.

The 29-year-old batsman missed the 4-Day Series final defeat to the Central Gauteng Lions after returning from New Zealand where he represented the Proteas in two Tests.

Kyle Verreynne will captain the side which sees the return of Wayne Parnell, who hasn’t featured for WP this season due to a lengthy injury. He returned to action during the SA20 for the Pretoria Capitals following his full recovery.

WP will face the KZN Dolphins in their opening fixture of the tournament at Kingsmead on Friday (6pm).

“The guys are really excited and looking forward to it,” said Verreynne. “We had a really successful white-ball campaign and the squad will predominantly be the same.

“The brand of cricket and the style that we’ve been playing all season has been positive and I think we’re going to look to continue that as much as we can in the T20 competition.

“It’s a double round of T20s, which is quite exciting – it’s quite a long competition which we haven’t had for a long time. We’re just trying to stay nice and fresh. We’re really looking forward to it and can’t wait to get going.”

Western Province T20 squad: Kyle Verreynne (c), Tony de Zorzi, Abdallah Bayoumy, Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson, Daniel Smith, Gavin Kaplan, George Linde, Kyle Simmonds, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nandre Burger, Wayne Parnell, Mthiwekhaya Nabe, Wesley Bedja, Eddie Moore, Onke Nyaku, David Bedingham, Jono Bird.

Photo: Misha Jordaan/Gallo Images