Temba Bavuma will not play the first fixture of South Africa's three-ODI series against Pakistan as he manages his workload ahead of two crucial Tests over the festive season. Aiden Markram will captain the team for the ODI opener in Paarl, with Bavuma set to return later in the series.
Though these matches are the first and last South Africa will have with their strongest available squad before the Champions Trophy, they will have the challenge of juggling between preparation for the big event and ensuring their Test players are kept fresh. Eight of the ODI squad - Bavuma, Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada - were involved in the 2-0 Test series win over Sri Lanka and are expected to play against Pakistan as well.
South Africa will be concerned about their quick bowlers in particular because they already have four on the sidelines and cannot risk one of Rabada and Jansen joining them. Wiaan Mulder (broken finger) is in a race against time to be fit for Boxing Day while Lungi Ngidi (hip injury) and Gerald Coetzee (groin niggle) are out until January, and Nandre Burger (lower back stress fracture) is out for the season. Anrich Nortje, who may have been considered for the ODIs to relieve Rabada and/or Jansen, is out with a broken toe and has also opted out of red-ball cricket for now as he works his way back from a series of injuries.
Bavuma acknowledged that South Africa find themselves in a "tricky" position, knowing that the Tests are the priority of the summer. They need one more win to guarantee a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. At the same time, they need to finalise their Champions Trophy combination, especially since they will not have a full-strength side available for the tri-series in Pakistan (with New Zealand) that precedes the tournament. That takes place in the latter stages of the SA20.
"Not everyone that we'd normally call upon is around because of injuries," Bavuma said in Paarl where the first ODI will be played on Tuesday. "We've got bowlers within the squad so we'd like to be in a position where we can give guys those opportunities, rest certain guys and give other guys opportunities. We'll try to balance it out as best as we can."
Apart from Rabada and Jansen, South Africa have seam-bowling allrounder Andile Phehlukwayo, variation specialist Ottneil Baartman, and 18-year-old left arm tearaway Kwena Maphaka available for the ODIs. Maphaka, who was called into the squad against Sri Lanka when Mulder was injured, was particularly impressive with his pace and could also be considered for the Pakistan Tests.
If the bowling concerns were not enough, South Africa are also waiting on the results of David Miller's fitness test after he injured his calf ahead of the third ODI. If he is unavailable, it may give South Africa an opportunity to trial what they will do if Miller has to miss parts of the Champions Trophy. That is a possibility as he and his Camilla await the birth of their first child, due in February.
South Africa's also have a few other things to consider as their top order will be without Reeza Hendricks, who was dropped and then scored a T20I hundred, or Quinton de Kock, who has retired from ODIs. Bavuma, de Zorzi and Rickelton will likely share the opening duties, with Stubbs, Miller (if fit), Heinrich Klaasen and an allrounder making up the middle order.
While South Africa have some problem-solving to do, Pakistan will be looking to get some stability going after a period of intense upheaval.
They would have been looking forward to touring South Africa with Gary Kirsten in charge and the inside knowledge that would have given them, but those hopes ended in late October when he resigned. They have since been on a roundabout of coaching and administrative changes - Jason Gillespie is gone now, too - but their results have trended well.
Pakistan go into the contest on the back of consecutive come-from-behind series wins in Zimbabwe and, more impressively, Australia. While they rested Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi Naseem Shah and some of their other senior players for the series against Zimbabwe, they have got their full-strength squad back for these ODIs.
They will look to repeat the template that worked wonders in Australia. In that series, they went into each game with just four fast bowlers and no specialist spinner, effectively banking on pace to wrap the opposition innings up inside 40 overs. It worked a charm, with no Australia innings lasting longer than 35 overs, and Australia bowled out in each of the last two games as Pakistan sealed a series win. If their quicks are in similarly lethal form, they will sniff an opportunity to do that again in South Africa against a batting unit that will not have their in-form captain to call upon. However, they will be mindful the first two venues are Paarl and Cape Town, where spinners tend to do well, and so may need a rethink.
It is also the last bilateral series Pakistan will play ahead of the Champions Trophy they host early next year, with only the short triangular series to go before that tournament begins. But Pakistan have got their weakest format out of the way, and they now begin a series in their strongest, which can only be good for them.