Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of the first Test between South Africa and Pakistan, happening at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
Playing XIs:
Pakistan: Shan Masood (capt), Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Aamer Jamal, Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Dane Paterson, Corbin Bosch
The LIVE telecast of the first Test match between South Africa and Pakistan can be watched on the Sports18 network. The match can also be streamed live on the JioCinema app/website
SQUADS
South Africa
Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne
Pakistan
Shan Masood (c), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Salman Agha, Babar Azam, Haseebullah Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Saud Shakeel
PREVIEWSouth Africa will be eyeing a place in the World Test Championship final with an all-seam attack against Pakistan in the first test, starting Thursday.
The Proteas need to win one of its remaining two test matches in this WTC cycle to guarantee a place at the Lord’s final next year and captain Temba Bavuma believes expectations have risen in his team to do well in the two-test series.
“There’ll be pressure that comes with that,” Bavuma said. “But to be honest with you, we’re coming into the series to win the series 2-0. We understand that for us to do that, there’s certain things that we need to do as a team: keep things simple, keep doing the small things right, and allow the results to take care of itself.” South Africa has included four fast bowlers in the lineup with Corbin Bosch, who consistently bowls above 140 kph, set to play his first test at his hometown.
