Marco Jansen taking leadership role in absence of key Proteas bowlers

While Kagiso Rabada was not selected after failing to recover from a hamstring injury suffered during winter training, Lungi Ngidi and Ottneil Baartman also had to pull out with the same issue after playing in the 1st Class Series, leaving South Africa very thin on experience heading into the blockbuster matches.

Jansen will now be leading the attack against the fierce rivals, a role he says he’s ready to embrace.

"Yeah obviously, those two not being a part of the squad is a bit of a loss I would say. They are two world class bowlers especially in South African conditions, they know how to bowl in these conditions,” Jansen said. 

“They know how to get the most out of the ball on a particular day and for me personally it sort of feels like I'm gonna have to take that leadership role to try and get from the front. 

“It's probably gonna be my first time taking up such a role, so, I'm quite excited for that and I'm looking forward to sort of see what I can do if put in such a role."

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Jansen revealed that he was down with illness before the domestic red ball season started and had limited preparation, but says he did some physio work to get ready for that and for national duty.

"I did some physio work in the build up to that. I saw a bunch of physios as well, especially coming back from after a 100 I felt like I had a bit of stiffness in the body as well and that helped me a lot,” he added.

“In that match in particular I felt good especially as the game progressed on the third day I built like a nine or 10 over spell where I felt 100% good. 

“I felt nice, rhythm was good and then going into this series it's sort of a little bit of that but on the back of that four day game I feel really good, from a rhythm and a bowling perspective."