Former Australian opener Simon Katch says the South African Test series will come down to the side which can adapt quicker to the red ball.
Katich, part of SEN's commentary team for the series, telling SEN Afternoons just like the Ashes series it will hinge on the team which bats best.
"The concern for me is that they've (Australia) only had this three-day game. More so from the batting point of view the last five/six weeks a lot of them having been playing Big Bash or one-dayers for Australia, even Davey Warner's only just finished playing the T20 series," he said.
"So there hasn't been a lot of red ball cricket and when you come up against a quality attack like South Africa have got, in those conditions where the ball can move around, it's a big adjustment to make from facing a ball and trying to smack it out of park to then having to survive.
"We saw what happened in Australia, not that long ago, against the South African attack we got found wanting, it's going to be tough and they've only got this three day game in Benoni, so that for me is the big challenge - how our batsmen adapt against such a quality attack and obviously South Africa have to do the same against ours, so whoever adjusts quick enough with the red ball is going to come out on top."
Katich is expecting lively wickets, similar to the pitches which featured through out South Africa's recent 2-1 series win over India.
"The quicks were obviously well and truly in the game and it wasn't a very high scoring series that's something where it's to their advantage to producuce some spicy wickets,'' he said.
"A lot of our batsmen haven't played a lot of Test cricket in South Africa but also more recently have been playing a lot of white ball cricket where the ball doesn't move around much, so it'll be interesting to see what they serve up.
"Their batters are going to have to come up against our bowling line-up and obviously our quicks have been very, very good against England here in the summer and already off to a good start in the practice match.
"It'll be a tough one for them too because a number of their batsmen have been out injured - Faf du Plessis has had a finger injury, AB de Villiers out with a knee and Quinton de Kock out recently as well so they've been a bit underdone."
SEN’s coverage of the South African Test series, led by Gerard Whateley, starts Thursday night.