Pace battery awaits Indian batsmen in South Africa

Andrew Hudson, convenor of selectors for the Proteas, said that South Africa would concentrate on its strong points when they announce their Test squad for the upcoming series against India.

"We will most probably choose just one spinner and depend on South Africa's traditional strength -- its pace attack," Hudson told the Afrikaans daily Beeld.

Hence, India can expect a pace attack when they start touring in South Africa from December 16.

There was still a view among the South Africans that despite India's strength being their batting, they remained vulnerable to bounce balls," said Beeld cricket writer Altus Momberg.

"This will be tested (against India) this summer," Momberg said, adding that Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were extremely dangerous under South African conditions.

The South African squad for the Test series against India will be announced at the end of this week.

Momberg speculated that the proposed tactic of the South Africans was probably why Indian coach Gary Kirsten and ten members of his team, including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, will arrive in Cape Town next Wednesday itself to get used to the South African conditions ahead of the first game on December 16.

The rest of the team, still playing in a One-Day series against New Zealand, will only arrive in Johannesburg on December 12.

India, during their tour of South Africa, however, will not face South Africa's first national cap of Pakistani origin, Imran Tahir.

The addition of Tahir, who has lived in South Africa for the past four years after marrying a local woman, was announced by Cricket South Africa (CSA) and then almost immediately withdrawn after it was discovered that he did not qualify because he was not yet a South African citizen.

Although Tahir's papers are expected to be ready by the end of the month, Hudson said he would not be considered for the series against India.