The first Test of the series starts in Lahore on Sunday.
South Africa will begin their World Test Championship (WTC) title defence with a two-match Test series in Pakistan, where they expect a stern spin challenge. Aiden Markram, stand-in captain as Temba Bavuma is out injured, is confident in his team’s preparations despite a lack of red-ball experience in spin-dominant subcontinental conditions for several batters.
The Proteas are scheduled to lock horns with Pakistan for the two Tests later this month, followed by two matches in India in November.
The current Proteas team hasn’t played red-ball cricket together since the WTC 2025 Final in June; some featured in the two-Test Zimbabwe series, while others enjoyed rest, or a few participated in the County Championship. Their preparations include only a two-day training camp in Pretoria, where they created roughs on practice pitches in an attempt to reduce Pakistan’s home advantage.
Markram acknowledged that Pakistan, within its rights, would look to test South Africa with turning tracks.
“If it’s your home game, you can pretty much prepare whatever wicket you’d like to prepare. That’s how I see it,” Markram said ahead of the team’s departure on Monday. “Ultimately, if it’s going to be extreme like it was in the English series, then it’s going to be difficult for both teams from a batting point of view. For us as a squad, we’ve just got to be happy with what we have, whatever the conditions look like and to back whoever it is on the day to get the job done. So I’m not too fussed by it.”
The South Africa captain’s reference to the England series points to Pakistan’s 2024 home season, when they altered their pitches midway through the three-match Test series against England. After losing the first Test on a belter of a pitch, the Shan Masood-led side won the next two matches in Lahore and Rawalpindi on tracks that turned square, courtesy of industrial fans and heaters to windbreakers to dry out the surfaces. South Africa are scheduled to play in Lahore and Rawalpindi, where 29 off 31 wickets in the England Test fell to spin.
While no pitch in South Africa behaves like those in the subcontinent, as its bounce dies and pace slows as the match progresses. The visitors conducted a specialised training camp at the High Performance Center, emulating the conditions, focusing on spinning wickets.
“There are three pitches that are spinning quite a bit, and two out of those three are really exaggerated,” Markram said. “The one that’s a little bit in between is still a sharp spin but slightly easier to bat on. And then we’ve got one strip in the middle as well, where it’s pretty normal. We try to keep it as dead as possible, but it’s not always that easy, just to have the ball squat a bit low. It’s difficult to do that on the Highveld, but we’ve tried our best. We’re trying to tick all the boxes.”
Amidst this, the Proteas will also miss the services of captain Bavuma, who was South Africa’s leading run scorer of the last WTC cycle. The Proteas have a big challenge to fill his void, with Dewald Brevis and Tony de Zorzi being the leading contenders to replace him. Zubayr Hamza has also won a recall and will give competition to the duo, with all likely depending on who plays well in training sessions, although Brevis’ ability to hit spin for quick runs might win him the bout.
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South Africa have picked a spin-heavy squad, including three spinners – left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy, offspinners Simon Harmer and Prenelam Subrayen. Keshav Maharaj, who will miss the first Test due to rehab after injury, is expected to join the squad for the second one.
“They’re all quite different. If you look at the two off-spinners to start with, Simon and Subs, especially having faced them now, where it is spinning, it’s two completely different challenges they throw at you. That’s something great to have as a squad,” Markram said. “You don’t really want similar types of spinners. They are each quite different, different paces, different types of spin in terms of side spin and overspin and stuff like that, which react differently off the wickets. They’ll play a massive role for us there if what we’re expecting is going to be the case.”
The first Test of the series starts in Lahore on Sunday, with the second Test slated for October 20. The red-ball series will be followed by three ODIs and three T20Is.
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