South Africa will use their limited-overs series in Sri Lanka as preparation for the Twenty20 World Cup as conditions within the United Arab Emirates are expected to be similar, captain Temba Bavuma said.

South Africa will play three One-day Internationals and three T20 Internationals during the Sept 2-14 tour, though variety of their frontline players have either been rested or are injured for the 50-over series.

Key wicket-keeper/batter Quinton de Kock and seamer Lungi Ngidi will occupy home, while hard-hitting middle-order batter David Miller is recovering from injury. All are expected to be available for the T20 matches, which begin from Sept 10.

“There is that the opportunity and challenge for us to achieve success in those conditions,” Bavuma told reporters before the team’s departure on Monday. “It is an ODI series [first], but it's still a build-up to the planet Cup in terms of giving us confidence to master our sort of play.”

South Africa have traditionally struggled in spinner-friendly conditions but have won their last two limited overs tours of Sri Lanka in 2014 and 2018.

“It is right for us to anesthetize that sort of pressure, especially the batters. If I check out our performances lately, the bowling group has been excellent,” Bavuma remarked. “Now the batters also will be put into that space where they're going to need to test their skills. once we get to [the World Cup] we expect the conditions to be almost like Sri Lanka.

“We realize it isn't a simple task to play there, whether it's red or white-ball cricket. So we take confidence within the incontrovertible fact that we've had success there as a team.”

All games within the series are going to be staged in Colombo.

South Africa made one change to their squad before departure with seamer Lutho Sipamla replacing Junior Dala, who tested positive for covid - 19 returns