Toss South Africa opt to bat vs Pakistan

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first against Pakistan in the first ODI in Paarl. Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj missed out with a niggle, which brought pace-bowling allrounder Andile Phehlukwayo into the side in what is both teams’ last bilateral series before the Champions Trophy next year.

Aiden Markram captained the hosts in the series opener, with Tabraiz Shamsi the only specialist spinner in their side. A number of players who hadn’t taken part in the T20I series owing to their involvement in the Tests against Sri Lanka returned, including Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen.

For Pakistan, Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah came back into the aide after absences from the team which played against Zimbabwe last month. As they did in Australia, Pakistan went in with just four specialist bowling options against South Africa, though, notably, it is legspinner Abrar Ahmed rather than an extra seamer which makes up the combination.

Vice-captain Salman Ali Agha was also included, thus offering Pakistan the option of an extra spinner.

South Africa: 1 Tony de Zorzi, 2 Ryan Rickelton, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Heinrich Klaasen, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Andile Phehlukhwayo, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Ottneil Baartman, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), 5 Kamran Ghulam, 6 Salman Agha, 7 Irfan Khan, 8 Shaheen Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed