South Africa cricket team has landed in Pakistan on Saturday, for a two-match Test series and a three-match T20I series. South Africa have come to Pakistan after a 14-year exile as the two boards finally agreed to play a series in Pakistan.
The squad of 21 players plus support staff landed in Karachi in a chartered plane amidst high security. This is first series Pakistan will play against South Africa at home since 2007 after hosting the Proteas for a couple of series in 2010 and 2013 in the adopted home country of United Arab Emirates. The series will start from January 26 with Test matches at Karachi and Rawalpindi, while the three-match T20I series will take place in Lahore.
Giving an insight into the tight security arrangement by the Pakistan authorities, South Africa's left-arm leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took to his social media to commend the effort.
Not just applause, the effort by the Pakistan authorities also received a comparison by Shamsi with a popular first person shooting game, 'Call of Duty'. Shamsi wrote, "Real life Call Of Duty. These guys aren't playing with small guns and they mean business!"
Squads
Pakistan: Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Imran Butt, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Yasir Shah, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Tabish Khan.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (captain), Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma, Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje, Wiaan Mulder, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Kyle Verreynne, Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Tabraiz Shamsi, George Linde, Daryn Dupavillon, Marco Jansen.
