Stand-in captain Aiden Markram says the Proteas have done everything they can to prepare for turning tracks in Pakistan.

South Africa begin their World Test Championship title defence in Lahore on Sunday, having not played together as a unit since the final against Australia at Lord’s in June.

A depleted side did beat Zimbabwe in a two-match series afterwards, but those games did not form part of the WTC.

“If it’s your home game, you can pretty much prepare whatever wicket you’d like,” said Markram before the team’s departure on Monday. “Ultimately, if it’s going to be extreme like it was in the English series, then it’s going to be difficult for both teams from a batting point of view.

“For us as a squad, we’ve just got to be happy with what we have, whatever the conditions look like, and back whoever it is on the day to get the job done.”

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Markram was referring to Pakistan’s 2023 home series against England, when surfaces in Multan and Rawalpindi turned sharply after being artificially dried.

South Africa’s matches will be played in Lahore and Rawalpindi, where 29 of 31 wickets fell to spin in that England series.

A recent two-day Proteas camp at the CSA High Performance Centre in Pretoria focused on replicating subcontinent conditions.

“There’s three pitches that are spinning quite a bit and two out of those three are really exaggerated,” Markram explained. “The one that’s a little bit in between is still sharp spin but slightly easier to bat on. We’ve also got one strip in the middle that’s pretty normal – we try to keep it as dead as possible, but it’s difficult to do that on the Highveld. We’ve tried our best to tick all the boxes.”

The Proteas have selected a spin-heavy squad, featuring Senuran Muthusamy, Simon Harmer and Prenelan Subrayen, with Keshav Maharaj joining for the second Test.

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“They’re all quite different,” Markram said. “If you look at Simon and Subs, they offer completely different challenges – different paces, types of spin and trajectories. That’s something great to have as a squad, and they’ll play a massive role if the conditions are what we expect.”

Proteas Test squad vs Pakistan: Aiden Markram (c), David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Tony de Zorzi, Zubayr Hamza, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj*, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Prenelan Subrayen, Kyle Verreynne. *Second Test only

Pakistan vs South Africa Test series
12-16 Oct: 1st Test, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
20-24 Oct: 2nd Test, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium

Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images