South Africa (Playing XI): Tony de Zorzi, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma(c), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne(w), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj

Preview by Telford Vice :

Brendon Kleynhans is a maths teacher at South African College School, one of the country's most prestigious alma maters. It luxuriates in the leafiness all around the most genteel part of Cape Town, with Newlands a mere long boundary away.

If that brings to your mind's eye a slight, chinless, reticent, bespectacled individual sporting a combover, a pocket protector and - dread word - slacks who declines to step out of the safety of suburbia, you need that eye tested.

"During camps it's half-pace," Kleynhans told Cricbuzz in the Kingsmead nets on Tuesday as the South Africans completed their preparations for the first men's Test against Sri Lanka, which starts in Durban on Wednesday. "Closer to the game, I come off a run-up and crank it up to 147 or 150."

As in kilometres per hour. Kleynhans is built like prop forwards used to be before rugby turned them into heaving cyborgs. He looks like he spends more time wrestling metal in the gym than he does squinting at a blackboard pinching a piece of chalk twixt thumb and forefinger. He has a chin. He does not have a combover.

The sidearm that dangled from the end of a properly muscled limb, gleaming sweatily in its sleeveless glory, told us why he had ventured out of the Cape's gentility to the country's most humid city at almost the hottest time of the year.

Kleynhans is South Africa's throwdown specialist. Other teams have had them; notably India, who have been served in this capacity by Raghavendra Dwivedi since no less than Sachin Tendulkar brought him into the training environment in 2011.

But South Africa are not India, with their bottomless resources and consequently burgeoning retinues of non-playing functionaries. It has been thus for a long time. South Africans were amazed when Royal Challengers Bangalore turned up for the 2009 IPL replete with a "chief blogger" and a "chief podcaster". The locals knew those job titles because they were emblazoned in large letters across the shoulders of the team shirts the "chiefs" wore.

No such vacancies exist, even 15 years later, in South African Cricket. Indeed, if national players want a throwdown session, they pick on whichever coach looks less than busy.

Before, that is, Kleynhans arrived. He takes his job seriously. Note that he didn't say "145 or 150". Those extra two kilometres at the lower end of his speedometer matter. Perhaps too much for some, a team source said: "Not all of the guys use him - he's a bit quick ..."

Kleynhans' presence is not, as it might seem, tangential to the bigger picture. It tells us South Africa are serious enough about trying to win the WTC to go where they have previously not by roping in people like throwdown specialists. For a team used to making do, barely, with must-haves, to be bequeathed a nice-to-have serves a dual purpose.

Kleynhans does his job with more energy, accuracy and efficiency than some put-upon member of the dressingroom, which means his charges should be more sharply honed for their challenge. It also means the players know they are valued maybe more than they were, or thought they were. When you're four wins away from sealing a spot in the WTC final, nuggets of recognition like that are worth more than they would have been had they been gold.

Having started at Kingsmead, this stage of South Africa's WTC quest will resume at St George's Park on December 5. Pakistan will be their opponents in the final push, in Centurion from December 26 and at Newlands from January 3.

The Lankans are in third place - two spots above South Africa - on the WTC standings. Their only other series in the competition comprises two matches at home against Australia in January and February.

In September and October, Sri Lanka hammered New Zealand 2-0 on the Asian island. That would be the same New Zealand who conquered India 3-0 in India in October. Should the Indians continue their domination of the Aussies they began in Perth, the Lankans will fancy their chances even more than they do currently.

Ah, but do they have a throwdown specialist?

When: November 27 to December 1, 2024; 9.30am Local Time (1pm IST)

Where: Kingsmead, Durban

What to expect: A potentially ruinous 84% chance of rain on the first day. But the subsequent days would seem kinder to cricket. With Evan Flint, unarguably South Africa's finest curator, consulting on the surface, expect it to be superb.

Team news

South Africa:

The decision not to pick a second frontline spinner - in Senuran Muthusamy, who is also no mean batter - says the home side are confident in their quicks, and satisfied that the pitch will live up to its billing as thoroughly South African.

Confirmed XI: Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj

Sri Lanka:

The visitors are choosing between three seamers and two spinners, and three spinners and one spinner. The latter would mean shortening the batting line-up, but they might be minded to follow South Africa's lead.

Possible XI: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Kusal Mendis, Milan Rathnayake, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando

What they said:

"If there is a need for a second spinner, we have Aiden. Looking at the pitch, we feel that if it turns it will probably be at the end of the game. Considering the weather as well, I think the seamers will come into play. We're confident in our attack." - Temba Bavuma explains his XI.

"I think we are more of a 3-2 combination. Otherwise, we are more of a 3-1 combination." - Dhananjaya de Silva declines to confirm or deny which way the visitors' selection might lean.

Squads:

South Africa Squad: Tony de Zorzi, Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma(c), Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne(w), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Senuran Muthusamy, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Dane Paterson, David Bedingham

Sri Lanka Squad: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis(w), Dinesh Chandimal, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva(c), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake, Prabath Jayasuriya, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando, Kasun Rajitha, Oshada Fernando, Lasith Embuldeniya, Nishan Peiris