Anrich Nortje, returning from an injury, has featured in just five matches so far for Delhi Capitals © Getty
Not quite two weeks ago, few outside of the tiny bubble of South African domestic cricket knew the name of Tristan Stubbs, a promising 21-year-old middle order batter from the Eastern Cape who had scored 506 runs in 17 senior T20 innings.

That narrative changed on May 5, when Mumbai Indians named Stubbs to replace the injured Tymal Mills for the remainder of this year's IPL. A new chapter in Stubbs' fairytale was written on Tuesday when he was picked in South Africa's squad to play five T20Is in India in June.

More than half of Stubbs' career T20 runs came in less than half of his career trips to the crease during the provincial competition in February. In May, he scored 56 runs off 61 balls without being dismissed in two T20s for South Africa A against their Zimbabwe counterparts.

But Stubbs' IPL dream didn't come true this time: he was trapped plumb in front for a second-ball duck by Chennai Super Kings' Mukesh Choudhary at the Wankhede on Thursday. That remains the only game he has played for the first team to be eliminated from the race to reach the playoffs.

Stubbs is one of nine players in the 16-player squad who are attached to IPL franchises. They include Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi - who earned the disapproval of many South Africans, among them Dean Elgar, for choosing to play in the tournament rather than make themselves available for the home Test series against Bangladesh in March and April. That slight would seem to have been forgiven.

"This is the Proteas like we have not seen them in a long time," convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang was quoted as saying in a release on Tuesday. "The injection of the IPL players means that we will have a team that's ready to fire on all cylinders immediately and has vast experience of the conditions that we will be playing in."

Nortje has been battling a hip injury that has kept him out of all 14 matches South Africa have played since the T20 World Cup in November, and has meant he has played in only five of Delhi Capitals' 13 games. The release said Nortje had been "medically cleared for action". Mpitsang described the anticipated return of the seventh-ranked T20I bowler as reason for "a collective sigh of relief".

The casualties from South Africa's T20 World Cup squad, who performed better than expected and narrowly missed securing a semi-final berth, are Bjorn Fortuin and Wiaan Mulder. Stubbs and Jansen are new faces, while Wayne Parnell is back in the mix having last played a T20I in June 2017. Stubbs and Jansen are uncapped in the format, while Ngidi hasn't played in any of Delhi's matches.

India are the No. 1-ranked team in the format with South Africa fourth. The series will serve as preparation for the T20I World Cup in Australia in October and November.

T20I Squad:Temba Bavuma (C), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen.