On Saturday, the South African cricket team arrived in Karachi to play three Twenty20 and two Tests, the team is touring Pakistan after a gap of 14 years.
The team is being led by wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock, while the squad includes 20 other members. Lahore will host all three Twenty20 internationals on February 11, 13 and 14 while South Africa will play the first Test against the hosts in Karachi from January 26, and the second Test starts from February 4 in Rawalpindi.
The South African squad includes Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, 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.
The team was escorted with high-level security from the airport by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), and the team’s head coach Mark Boucher expressed satisfaction with the security arrangements. “We’ve had our [security] guys go there [Pakistan] and do a recce of the situation and they have said it is safe,” Boucher told reporters ahead of the team’s departure on Friday.
The entire South African squad has had two COVID-19 tests before their departure, which were all negative. The team will now be tested again as they have arrived in Pakistan along with going into individual isolation until the results of the latest tests come back. After clearing the tests the team will start training in a ground adjacent to their hotel. After the end of the quarantine period, the team will start practice training at Karachi’s National Stadium, according to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Following the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009, international cricket was suspended in Pakistan until a few years ago when Pakistan has gradually hosted teams again since 2016 before hosting the Sri Lankan team in 2019 as the first team to play a Test series in Pakistan again.
