South Africa VS Pakistan 1st T20I Venue: Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban
South Africa VS Pakistan 1st T20I Date: Tuesday, December 10
BetXchange South Africa VS Pakistan 1st T20I Odds:
History
South Africa hosts Pakistan over the next two months for an all-format cricket tour. The tour begins with three T20Is, the first in Durban on Tuesday, followed by 20-over internationals in Centurion and Johannesburg.
The tour’s second leg is another white-ball event with three ODIs in Paarl, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. The final leg consists of two Test matches in Centurion and Cape Town, which could see the Proteas qualify for the ICC World Test Championship at Lord’s in London next year.
This is the first all-format series between South Africa and Pakistan since 2019, so the level of expectation is high. This has also been a competitive series lately, though Pakistan has won the last two times the teams have been in bilateral competition. They beat the Proteas at home 2-1 in February 2021, then won 3-1 on South African soil that April.
South Africa
South Africa is in a strange spot heading into this match. All eyes in the country are on the Test team, who just wrapped up a thrilling win against Sri Lanka to win that series 2-0 and move the Proteas closer to a place in the WTC final. It hurts the hosts that none of the players in that squad will be able to play in the first T20I, and it hurts from an optics point, given that backdrop, with this series needing something to make it feel more relevant.
Heinrich Klaasen will captain the squad, and several players are looking to establish themselves as viable options for the whiteball team. Anrih Nortje, Reeza Hendricks, David Miller, and Tabraiz Shamsi join Klassen as the only players in the squad that played in the T20I World Cup final earlier this year.
Pakistan
Pakistan has sent its strongest T20I team to South Africa for this series. Several stars rested for the series against Zimbabwe, including regular white ball captain Miohammaad Rizwan, have been recalled. Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Babr Azam are all in the fold for the trip to face the Proteas.
Pakistan is used to touring as a T20I side. This is their third overseas tour in a row, and this battle-tested squad has been on the road since November. Their tour of Australia may have told us more about the ODI squad than the 20Is. The next World Cup in this format isn’t until 2026, so it is no shock that their squads this season have been classed by management as ‘experimental.’
Best Bets
Slightly hidden by the success of the Test side is that South Africa has been brutal in this format in 2024 outside of the World Cup. They haven’t won a single bilateral series, were whitewashed twice by the West Indies, and only managed a draw against Ireland.
The Proteas never gets their best 11 T20I players on the pitch together, and it shows. With that in mind, take Pakistan to win the opening match of this tour at 3/2.
