South Africa and Zimbabwe go head-to-head to fine tune ICC Champions Trophy preparations

South Africa and Zimbabwe will be looking to fine-tune their preparations for the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy when they go head-to-head in a three-game ODI series that starts in Bloemfontein on Friday.

With that tournament now less than a month away these matches will be a great opportunity for both sides to refine tactics and work on skills in readiness for the ten-team event in India that starts on 7 October.

For South Africa these outings are a chance to get back into action after the frustration of the abandoned series in Sri Lanka last month.

And for Zimbabwe they are another opportunity to expose the country's emerging players to a high level of competition, something considered vital as they seek to develop.

Zimbabwe will certainly have some confidence coming into the series thanks to a 3-2 success against Bangladesh in its most recent ODI outings, just over a month ago.

But, with due respect to those opponents, the meeting with Graeme Smith's Proteas is likely to be an altogether tougher assignment.

South Africa is second in the LG ICC ODI Championship table, just nine rating points behind leaders Australia, and a clean sweep of the Zimbabwe series will move it a point closer to the table-topping world champions.

And Smith's side will fancy its chance of achieving exactly that outcome given the return of a host of players that were unavailable for the Sri Lanka series.

Into the line-up comes Smith, recovered after a severe ankle injury, as well as all-rounders Jacques Kallis - back after a long-term elbow injury - and Justin Kemp and seam and swing bowler Charl Langeveldt.

Smith is South Africa's leading batsman in the LG ICC Player Rankings, in sixth position, and he has two team-mates with him inside the top 20 - Herschelle Gibbs in 15th place and Boeta Dippenaar two spots further down the list.

Outside the top 20, Kallis is joint 25th in the batting rankings alongside New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming. The list is topped by Australia's Adam Gilchrist with his captain Ricky Ponting in second spot ahead of Ramnaresh Sarwan of the West Indies and India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

South Africa can boast the leading player in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers with Shaun Pollock heading that list. The former captain also tops the all-rounder table to complete a notable double.

Pollock has just one team-mate in the bowling top 20, fast bowler Makhaya Ntini in joint ninth position along with India's Harbhajan Singh, but just outside that leading group are another fast bowler, Andre Nel (21st), and all-rounder Andrew Hall (23rd)

Pollock is clear of Australia's Glenn McGrath and Shane Bond of New Zealand in the bowling table while the West Indies' Chris Gayle is his nearest challenger at the head of the all-rounders' list.

The impressive credentials of so many South Africa players makes Zimbabwe's task over the next week look a tough one. The visitor's line-up is certainly short of experience and that is reflected in Zimbabwe's lack of representatives among the leading players in the LG ICC Player Rankings.

Captain Prosper Utseya is his side's leading player in the bowling list and the off-spinner lies in an impressive 15th spot, but below him the next Zimbabwe representative is seamer Tawanda Mupariwa in 49th place while fellow seam bowler Edward Rainsford is in 71st position in the list.

Zimbabwe's highest-placed player in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen is vice-captain Brendan Taylor, in joint 39th spot along with England's Paul Collingwood.

If Zimbabwe loses all three matches in its series against South Africa it will lose two rating points but will stay ahead of tenth-placed Bangladesh when the ratings are recalculated to three decimal places.

Even one Zimbabwe victory will significantly boost its rating while at the same time having a negative effect on South Africa's points tally.

Emirates Elite Panel ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama will preside over the matches with Emirates Elite Panel ICC umpire Daryl Harper joined in the middle by appointees from Cricket South Africa.

The first match of the Australia-India-West Indies tri-series, played in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, saw Australia victorious by 78 runs. That boosted Australia's lead in the LG ICC ODI Championship table by one rating point - it now leads by nine points from South Africa - while the West Indies dropped one rating point and so slipped below England into eighth place.

The fixtures for the South Africa - Zimbabwe series are as follows:

15 Sept - 1st ODI, Bloemfontein
17 Sept - 2nd ODI, East London
16 Sept - 3rd ODI, Potchefstroom

Full details of the current LG ICC ODI Championship and how future results will impact on the table, as well as the LG ICC Player Rankings can be found here