Pakistan they will be keen to end their tour of South Africa on a winning note when they take on the hosts in the second and final Test of the ongoing Test. series. The second SA vs PAK Test will be played at Newlands, Cape Town from Friday (January 3, 2025).
The defeat ended Pak's slim chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship final and they will now look to win their next game to end the tour on a high note.. After losing the T20I series, Pakistan bounced back in style and swept the three-match ODI series smoothly.
They will now be eyeing a similar performance in the second Test as well. In the first test, Pak almost stunned South Africa but eventually lost the thrilling game by 2 wickets.
Chasing 147 runs, Pakistan reduced South Africa to 19/3 and then 99 for 8. With South Africa still needing almost 50 runs, the visitors were favorites to win the Test. However, they failed to break the partnership between Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada.
The two shared an unbeaten stand of 51 runs to take their team home. At the start of the game, the visitors scored 211 and 237 runs in the two innings. On the other hand, South Africa scored 301 runs in the first innings.
As the visitors now look to bounce back and claim a series win, we take a look at the Pakistan Playing 11 for the second Test.
Pakistan Playing 11 vs South Africa – Second Test, Pakistan Tour of South Africa 2024-25:
Openers: Shan Masood (c), Saim Ayub
Captain Shan Masood and Saim Ayub are expected to open the Playing 11 for the upcoming match against South Africa. Both players got starts in the first game but were unable to convert them into big scores.
In the first half, Masood scored 17 points while Ayub scored 14. Masood scored 28 runs while Ayub scored 27 runs in the 2nd innings. They will be keen to give their team a better start in the second Test.
Middle order batsmen and allrounders: Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Aamer Jamal
Former captain Babar Azam he failed to start in the first half, scoring only 4 points. However, he did well in the second half. In testing conditions, Babar played a crucial knock of 50 runs which helped Pakistan post a competitive total.
Kamran Ghulam once again impressed with the bat. He was the visitors' top scorer in the first half. Ghulam scored 54 runs and was the only visiting batsman to score a fifty. However, he could not impress in the second innings and was dismissed for just 4.
After scoring 14 runs in the first innings, Saud Shakeel top scored for his team in the second innings, playing a crucial knock of 84 runs. Mohammad Rizwan scored 27 runs in the first innings before being dismissed for 3 runs in the second innings.
Salman Agha could not do well with the bat in either of the two innings. He scored 18 in the first half and 1 in the second. However, the right-handed batsman is expected to retain his place in the Pakistan Playing XI.
Aamer Jamal he played useful cameos in both innings, scoring 28 and 18. With the ball, he picked up 2 wickets in the first innings.
Bowlers: Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas
The visitors are expected to have three frontline pacers in the Playing 11 for the second Test. Naseem Shah and Khurram Shahzad picked up 4 wickets each in the first test. Both pacers picked up 3 wickets each in the first innings before taking another wicket in the second innings.
On the other hand, Mohammad Abbas claimed a solitary wicket in the first innings before taking 6 wickets in the second innings which put Pakistan on the brink of a famous victory.