Sri Lanka men are placed in third position of the WTC points table, with a win percentage of 55.56 and South Africa is right on their heels with a win percentage of 54.17.
Both are in the contenders and are in striking distance of a top-two finish out of five serious contenders namely, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia and India are other three.
This is made to focus equally along with high stake Border Gavaskar Trophy plus a New Zealand vs England series. Meanwhile, The Lions are the only Asian team to have beaten South Africa at home in 2019 series.
Warm-ups complete.🔥
🇱🇰Sri Lanka won the toss and have elected to bowl first.
Here is our Starting XI⬇️#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #SAvSL pic.twitter.com/xYdrIsUARu
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) November 27, 2024
South Africa will host the lions for te first test of the series with Temba Bavuma will be leading the home side while Dhananjaya de Silva will captain Sri Lanka team.
Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen will be bring in the experience to secure win at home. Meanwhile the visitors will rely on Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews to perform in challenging conditions.
These two teams have faced each other 31 test matches, with South Africa having 16 wins and Sri Lanka securing 9 wins.
Coming to the match Sri Lanka chose to bowl first at Kingsmead.
Sri Lanka Playing 11: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis (wk), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando
South Africa Playing 11: Tony de Zorzi, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada
