Pakistan will compete South Africa In the first match of the two-match Test series. This article provides details about the playing 11 of South Africa vs Pakistan for the first match of the series.
South Africa Playing XI vs Pakistan- 1st Test, South Africa tour of Pakistan 2025
Openers: Aiden Markram (captain), Ryan Rickelton
South Africa will begin their campaign in the fourth edition of the World Test Championship with the upcoming two-match Test series against Pakistan.
The visitors will be without their regular captain Temba Bavuma and will be led by Aiden Markram.
Africa have selected a relatively young team that does not have much experience of playing Test matches in Pakistan.
Having said that, the team will take confidence from their win against Australia in the World Test Championship final and will deliver strong performances with the bat, ball and in the field as they have the resources to do so.
The Proteas will open the batting with Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton and will hope to provide a solid platform for the middle-order batsmen to exploit.
For this series, South African captain Aiden Markram, being the captain and senior batsman in the team, will have to take responsibility and bat for a long time.
Markram will be hoping for a good amount of support from his opening partner Ryan Rickelton, who himself will be looking to perform well as a batsman in the opening games of the series.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Dewald Brewis, Marco Johnson, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Wiaan Mulder
The opening pair will be followed by the middle order, which is a bit young in terms of experience in the longest format of the game, especially when it comes to batsmen who can bat at numbers three, four and five.
Players like Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brewis are still finding their feet at Test level and will be looking to score big in the first match to take some pressure off their backs.
Due to lack of experience, batsmen like David Bedingham and Marco Johnson will have to play a key role in the South African batting lineup if the team wants to score more than 350 runs on the board.
The biggest strength of the Proteas in the Test series against Pakistan is that the team has a deep batting lineup, extending up to the number eleven, with players like Senuran Muthusamy, Kagiso Rabada able to hold their own.
Bowlers: Prenelan Subraiyaan, Senuran Muthusamy, Kagiso Rabada
The Proteas will rely on the spinners to perform well in the first match of the series, as the conditions are expected to favor them in Lahore.
South Africa are expected to go into this match with at least two specialist spinners in the form of Prenelan Subramaniam and Senuran Muthusamy, with Keshav Maharaj joining the squad for the second Test.
As far as the Proteas’ fast bowling department is concerned, it will see the return of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Johnson, both of whom have not played a Test since the World Test Championship final earlier this year.
Along with this pair, the team will also be able to avail the services of fast bowling all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, who has been in good form with the bat for some time now and can contribute well with the ball as well.