South Africa will be eyeing a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final with an all-seam attack against Pakistan in the first Test at SuperSport Park beginning on Thursday.

The Proteas need to win one of their remaining two Test matches in this WTC cycle to guarantee a place at the Lord’s final next year, and captain Temba Bavuma believes expectations have risen in his team to do well in this two-Test series.

“There’ll be pressure that comes with that,” Bavuma said. “But to be honest with you, we’re coming into the series to win it 2-0. We understand for us to do that, there are certain things that we need to do as a team: keep things simple, keep doingthe small things right and allow the results to take care of themselves.”

South Africa have included four fast bowlers in the line-up with Corbin Bosch, who consistently bowls above 140kph, set to play his first Test at his hometown.

Seasoned quicks Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen will team up with Dane Paterson and Bosch to challenge Pakistan’s batters on an expected pacey Centurion pitch where fast bowlers have had a clear advantage over the last six years, picking up 227 wickets with spinners dismissing only 16 batters.

The hosts comprehensively beat Sri Lanka at home in a two-Test series earlier this month, but heading into these Tests, their top-order batters did struggle against Pakistan in a rare 0-3 ODI whitewash with Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs all failing to read the off-spin of Salman Agha in the opening game.

“Whether it’s easy, whether it’s hard, we’ve got to find a way to do it,” Bavuma said. “Whatever, I don’t know, trauma that was there, guys will have to deal with it.”

Pakistan are at No.7 on the WTC table with Aaqib Javed being their fourth head coach in this WTC cycle as Mickey Arthur and Mohammed Hafeez quit after one series. Former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie resigned from the Test head coach’s post just two weeks before this Centurion game.

However, like the Proteas, Pakistan, too, are set to go into this Boxing Day Test without a specialist spinner, with seamer all-rounder Aamer Jamal accompanied by Naseem Shah, Mohammad Abbas and Khurram Shahzad in the bowling attack.

Abbas returns more than three years after he last played a Test, while Shahzad is coming back from a recurring rib injury that first ruled him out for several months following the first Test against Australia in Perth last December and then again after the second Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindiin September.

Backing Jamal’s inclusion in the XI, skipperShan Masood said: “There are different aspects to Jamal’s bowling: he’s not one-dimensional and is handy when the ball reverses, and also useful at being the enforcer. He’s equally skilful with the new ball.”

On the other hand, Abdullah Shafique had to pay for his all-format loss ofform. Babar Azam will return to the XI and is slated tobat at No.3.

Written with AP/PTI inputs