South Africa opt to bat in their first Test in Zimbabwe in 11 years

Toss South Africa chose to bat vs Zimbabwe

South Africa's stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj opted to bat in what's their first Test in Zimbabwe in 11 years. Maharaj is the only survivor from that previous Test, in Harare in 2014, and is leading South Africa in the absence of the injured Temba Bavuma.

The visitors have fielded three debutants in Bulawayo: batters Dewald Brevis and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, and seam-bowling allrounder Codi Yusuf. They chose to rest several of their first-choice squad members from the Zimbabwe tour - seven of the starting XI from the World Test Championship final earlier this month, which was their last game in this format, are not in the mix.

After Maharaj, who has played 58 Tests, South Africa's next-most-experienced player in Bulawayo is Kyle Verreynne with 25 games.

Zimbabwe's captain Craig Ervine, meanwhile, is expecting some moisture in the pitch, and is happy bowling first. Zimbabwe toured England for a one-off Test last month, and made four changes to the side that had played in Nottingham - Takudzwanashe Kaitano, Nick Welch, Vincent Masekesa and Wellington Masakadza have all come in. Ben Curran, Sikandar Raza, Victor Nyauchi and Richard Ngarava are missing.

The Test in Bulawayo is the first of a two-match series, which is not part of the WTC 2025-27 cycle.

Zimbabwe: 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Takudzwanashe Kaitano, 3 Nick Welch, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Craig Ervine (capt), 6 Wessly Madhevere, 7 Tafadzwa Tsiga (wk), 8 Wellington Masakadza, 9 Vincent Masekesa, 10 Blessing Muzarabani, 11 Tanaka Chivanga

South Africa: 1 Matthew Breetzke, 2 Tony de Zorzi, 3 Wiaan Mulder, 4 David Bedingham, 5 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 6 Dewald Brevis, 7 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Codi Yusuf, 11 Kwena Maphaka