Philander played the last of his seven Twenty20 international matches in 2007, but his recent recall to the one-day international set-up suggested the Proteas were ready to use him in the shortest format of the game as well.
The squad, to be captained by Faf du Plessis, has been submitted well before the Jan 6 deadline and will be pruned to the final 15 players later.
Squad: Faf du Plessis (captain), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Beuran Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Colin Ingram, Rory Kleinveldt, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Dane Vilas, Hardus Viljoen, David Wiese.
(Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
