Toss South Africa chose to bat v Pakistan
South Africa’s stand-in captain Dean Elgar won the toss and chose to bat in Johannesburg, with his team pursuing a 3-0 whitewash in the Tests against Pakistan.
There was one change to the South Africa team, with Faf du Plessis’ suspension for an over-rate offence handing a debut in the middle order to Zubayr Hamza. Opener Aiden Markram was passed fit after a thigh injury, leaving Pieter Malan waiting for a first cap.
Having enjoyed success with a four-man pace attack in Cape Town, South Africa stuck to the same gameplan, meaning no return for spinner Keshav Maharaj.
As expected, with the series already gone Pakistan made several changes to their team. The return to fitness of Shadab Khan has meant two allrounders coming into the team where there were none: Faheem Ashraf and Shadab taking over from the misfiring Fakhar Zaman and Yasin Shah.
There was also a change to the seam attack, with young left-armer Shaheen Afridi replaced by Hasan Ali, who sat out the second Test.
South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar (capt), 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Theunis de Bruyn, 5 Temba Bavuma, 6 Zubayr Hamza, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Duanne Olivier
Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Shan Masood, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Babar Azam, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt/wk), 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Mohammad Abbas, 11 Hasan Ali