South African cricket team in Pakistan in 2020–21

After successfully arranging a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka in Pakistan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Ehsan Mani announced that they would no longer play their future home matches at a neutral venue.[9][10] For the tour to go ahead, Cricket South Africa needed to grant permission for their players to travel as a group, due to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.[11] In August 2020, the South Africa women's team were denied a request to travel to England.[12]

On 25 September 2020, the PCB confirmed that the South African team would be touring Pakistan, as per the schedule.[13] A month later, Cricket South Africa sent a security delegation to Pakistan to perform a feasibility assessment for the tour.[14] South Africa last toured Pakistan in October 2007.[15] On 16 January 2021, the PCB named the match officials for the tour. Aleem Dar, who has been the on-field umpire for 132 Tests prior to the tour, stood in his first Test match at home.[16] Ahsan Raza also made his debut as an on-field umpire in Test cricket.[17]

Tests		T20Is
Pakistan[18]	South Africa[19]	Pakistan[20]	South Africa[21]
Babar Azam (c) Mohammad Rizwan (vc, wk) Shaheen Afridi Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk) Fawad Alam Abid Ali Azhar Ali Hasan Ali Nauman Ali Faheem Ashraf Imran Butt Kamran Ghulam Sajid Khan Tabish Khan Mohammad Nawaz Haris Rauf Agha Salman Abdullah Shafique Yasir Shah Saud Shakeel	Quinton de Kock (c, wk) Ottniel Baartman Temba Bavuma Faf du Plessis Daryn Dupavillon Dean Elgar Sarel Erwee Beuran Hendricks Marco Jansen George Linde Keshav Maharaj Aiden Markram Wiaan Mulder Lungi Ngidi Anrich Nortje Keegan Petersen Dwaine Pretorius Kagiso Rabada Tabraiz Shamsi Lutho Sipamla Rassie van der Dussen Kyle Verreynne	Babar Azam (c) Shaheen Afridi Iftikhar Ahmed Sarfaraz Ahmed Asif Ali Haider Ali Hasan Ali Faheem Ashraf Danish Aziz Amad Butt Zafar Gohar Mohammad Hasnain Zahid Mahmood Mohammad Nawaz Usman Qadir Haris Rauf Mohammad Rizwan (wk) Khushdil Shah Hussain Talat Aamer Yamin	Heinrich Klaasen (c) Nandre Burger Okuhle Cele Junior Dala Bjorn Fortuin Reeza Hendricks George Linde Janneman Malan David Miller Andile Phehlukwayo Dwaine Pretorius Ryan Rickelton Tabraiz Shamsi Lutho Sipamla JJ Smuts Glenton Stuurman Jacques Snyman Pite van Biljon

In December 2020, Pakistan's Shadab Khan suffered an injury ahead of the Test series against New Zealand.[22] On 26 December 2020, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed that he had been ruled out of the second Test against New Zealand,[23] and the Test matches at home against South Africa.[24] Before South Africa departed for the tour, Ottniel Baartman was ruled out of their Test squad, with Marco Jansen named as his replacement.[25] On 24 January 2021, the PCB confirmed that seventeen players would be available for selection for the first Test match,[26] with Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam and Agha Salman staying with the squad for training sessions.[27] The PCB also retained the same seventeen players for selection for the second Test match.[28]

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