Correctly assessing pitch conditions will be a more critical requirement than usual for South Africa's masterminds when the two-Test series against Pakistan starts in Karachi on Tuesday.
At a time when tours are coming thick and fast for most nations to make up the coronavirus-related backlog from 2020, the luxury of warm-up matches to familiarise with local characteristics has become even scarcer - in an era where they've been in sharp decline anyway.
Fly in... and get straight into the big stuff has been the requirement in a number of recent instances, and the Proteas have precisely that drawback in Pakistan.
