JOHANNESBURG, Dec 2: Pakistan’s tour of South Africa is a perfect opportunity to assess conditions ahead of the World Cup to be played there in February, captain Waqar Younis said Monday.

Pakistan arrived for the tour starting Tuesday fresh off a 2-0 Test series victory and 5-0 one-day international clean sweep of Zimbabwe.

“We’ve come here to try and win the series against South Africa,” Younis told a media conference.

“But at the same time it gives us a good opportunity to try and find our best team and exploit the conditions to get used to them for the World Cup.

“We’ve come with a squad of 17 which may be a bit much but we want to get our best 15 for the World Cup and we will discover them here.”

Controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, suspended for one match after inciting the crowd at Sunday’s one-day international against Zimbabwe in Harare, is in the squad.

“Fast bowlers are hot-tempered and what happened was disappointing but that is the way it goes,” Waqar said.

“But Shoaib is here and is bowling well and I’m looking forward to seeing him bowl on these fast wickets.”

Pakistan meet South Africa in two Test matches and five one-day internationals.

“We will have a good idea after the one-day series about the make up of our World Cup squad,” said coach Richard Pybus.

“We have a full strength squad and playing here will give us a good bench mark as to where we are for the World Cup.”

Squad:

Waqar Younis (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq, Taufeeq Umar, Shahid Afridi, Salim Elahi, Yousuf Youhana, Faisal Iqbal, Younis Khan, Rashid Latif, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Muhammad Sami, Muhammad Zahid, Saqlain Mushtaq, Misbah-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Abdul Razzaq.—Reuters