With an eye on the World Twenty20

The Twenty20 internationals between South Africa and Australia will provide players with a chance to seal their spots in the respective squads for the World Twenty20 in England which begins in June. South Africa coach Mickey Arthur and batsmen AB de Villiers, both underlined the importance of the two-match series, the first of which gets underway on Friday in Johannesburg.

"This is a very important weekend for players to show their worth on the international stage," Arthur told AP. "All 15 members of the squad will play at least one match and we also want to assess how players contribute in the dressing room environment and at practice."

While Australia are ranked No. 1 in Tests, South Africa are the world's top one-day team, and both sides would be keen to take the upper hand in the Twenty20 format.

"We've got a nice brand of cricket in Tests and one-dayers and we're still looking for a certain type of brand in the Twenty20s. We are working on that," said de Villiers. "We've had some good matches in the past, and some disappointing ones. We're looking for that brand It's not yet there, but we'll definitely find it in the next few games. It's very important with a World Cup coming up."

Australia captain Ricky Ponting indicated that there would be experiments with the team lineup to help find the best mix for the World Cup. "It's about time we started looking ahead to the Twenty20 World Cup as well and started to try to pencil in what we think is going to be our best team for that," Ponting said.

The visitors hold the upper hand when it comes to the Twenty20 matches between the teams, with three wins from four - all at home - compared to South Africa's lone win in Johannesburg back in February 2006.