Shake South Africa choose to bat vs Pakistan
Aiden Markram captained the hosts in the series opener, with Tabraiz Shamsi the only spinner specialist in his team. Several players who had not featured in the T20I series due 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 returned as assistants after absences from the team that played against Zimbabwe last month. As they did in Australia, Pakistan went in with just four specialist bowling options against South Africa, although notably it is leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed rather than an additional seamer who 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 (captain), 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 (captain, week), 5 Kamran Ghulam, 6 Salman Agha, 7 Irfan Khan, 8 Shaheen Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed
