South Africa have chosen to bat on a green-tinged St George’s Park pitch in the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka.
Both teams lined up along expected lines. South Africa made one change to the eleven that played the third Test against Australia in Adelaide, bringing back the left-arm orthodox spinner Keshav Maharaj for Tabraiz Shamsi, who played the Adelaide game as a day-night specialist.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, welcomed Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, their captain and vice-captain, from injury, and went into the match with a solid-looking top seven. The fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera also returned for his first international match since suffering a stress fracture during the Leeds Test against England in May. He slotted into a three-man pace attack alongside Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep.
South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Stephen Cook, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt.), 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Kyle Abbott, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Kagiso Rabada
Sri Lanka: 1 Kaushal Silva, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Perera, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 7 Dhananjaya de Silva, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Nuwan Pradeep
espncricinfo
