Proteas can broaden their depth

In the same way that the Standard Bank ODI squad's cycle runs from World Cup to World Cup, the Castle Test cycle is built around a side that is capable of taking on and beating the best in the world which at the moment happens to be Australia.

That mission was half-accomplished when the Proteas beat Australia in their series 'down under' earlier this summer but the corresponding series at home has been irretrievably lost which explains in part why the selectors have gone into this third Test with three players untested in the five-day game in the form of Imraan Khan, Albie Morkel and Wayne Parnell although only two of them will play.

Graeme Smith will obviously return to lead the side when Test cricket resumes against England in nine months' time and there is a lot of mileage left in the tanks of the likes of Ashwell Prince, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Makhaya Ntini but this match does provide the opportunity to broaden the depth of the Castle Test squad.

This weekend's match also provides another chapter in the remarkable career of Kallis who takes his all-round skills to the supreme level of being senior batsman, frontline bowler, best specialist catcher and stand-in captain as well.

It is a role that few others have ever had to achieve.

The last time Kallis took on the captaincy, also against Australia in the final match of a lost series, the Proteas nearly pulled off an unexpected victory and it is worth recording that the major roles were played by senior players with Makhaya Ntini taking 10 wickets with the ball and both Prince and Boucher playing important innings with the bat.

Kallis is very much a consultative captain - and he will have the assistance of Smith in the background - but there is no doubt that he will be looking to the senior players to take the lead.

That includes the likes of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn who may be youthful in terms of age but are certainly senior players in terms of the roles they fill in the side.