South Africa captain Quinton de Kock won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test of the two-match series beginning Tuesday at the National Stadium.
It is for the first time in 13 years that Pakistan is hosting the Proteas in a Test match at home.
Pakistan could not host an international team between 2009 and 2015 after the deadly terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009, and although cricket has been played in the country over the past few years, there had been no Test cricket up until late last year when Sri Lanka toured there.
The Sri Lankans, who toured Pakistan for two Test matches in December 2019, were followed by Bangladesh for two Tests, one of which was in February, and the other was in April.
The second Test will be played between Pakistan and South Africa in Rawalpindi from February 4, followed by a three-match T20I series in Lahore from Feb 11-14.
Playing XIs:
South Africa:
Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock(w/c), Temba Bavuma, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje
Pakistan:
Abid Ali, Imran Butt, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam(c), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Faheem Ashraf, Yasir Shah, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Shaheen Afridi
