Having won seven consecutive Test series at home, South Africa will now aim for eighth Test series win when they take on Sri Lanka in the two Tests series that starts at Kingsmead in Durban on Wednesday. South Africa's Test form at home has been excellent for the last two-three years and they're coming off with a 3-0 series win over Pakistan and shouldn't have any problem against a depleted Sri Lankan side who have lost six of their last seven Tests.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka will be playing this series under a new captain Dimuth Karunaratne and will be hoping for a good turn around this time and if somehow they put up a good fight against this formidable South African side then it'll be a good achievement for them.
Team News -
South Africa - Captain Faf du Plessis returns after serving one Test match ban due to over-rate offence and one of Zubayr Hamza or Theunis de Bruyn will sit out.
Sri Lanka - Dimuth Karunaratne will make his captaincy debut and players like Milinda Siriwardana and Lakshan Sandakan could make their comeback.
All the major stats and facts ahead of the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Durban :
Head to Head -
| Venue | Tests | Won by SA | Won by SL | Drawn | Tied |
| South Africa | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Sri Lanka | 14 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| Neutral | - | - | - | - | - |
| Overall | 27 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
At Kingsmead, Durban -
South Africa - Tests - 43, Won - 14, Lost - 15, Drawn - 14
Sri Lanka - Tests - 2, Won - 1, Drawn - 1
1 - Sri Lanka's only Test win on South African soil came at Kingsmead, Durban in December 2011.
6 - Sri Lanka have lost six of their last seven Tests and their last Test win came against South Africa at home in July 2018.
12 - Dimuth Karunaratne needs 12 more runs to become the 11th Sri Lankan player to achieve the feat of 4000 Test runs.
17 - Dimuth Karunaratne will become the 17th player to captain Sri Lanka in Test cricket.
33.80 - Hashim Amla's Test batting average against Sri Lanka. He has scored only 676 runs in 12 Tests he has played against them.
36 - Vernon Philander has taken 36 wickets at an impressive average of 17.77 in 8 Tests against Sri Lanka.
44 - Dale Steyn has taken 44 wickets at an average of 21.95 at Kingsmead, Durban and needs 1 more wicket to go past Shaun Pollock's 44 Test wickets tally and become leading wicket taker at this venue.
2013 - South Africa haven't won a Test match at Kingsmead, Durban since December 2013 (vs IND). Since then they have lost two Tests and one Test ended in a draw.
