South African all rounder Jacques Kallis is doubtful for the four match Test series against England due to injury, which has thrown the home team's strategy into a tangle.
Already behind in the one-day series and needing a win to level it 2-2 on Friday, the selectors have shown no immediate signs of resolving, except by picking more players.
They named an enlarged squad of 15, which includes four uncapped players, for the first Test in a fortnight.
Meanwhile, South Africa's chairman of selectors Mike Procter has made no attempt to conceal the worth of a player who has scored 10,277 runs and taken 258 wickets.
"Jacques Kallis is obviously a very big number in our Test side and providing cover for him requires more than one player," The Independent quoted Procter, as saying.
Kallis is suffering with a broken rib.
The injury was first felt in the Twenty20 Champions League in India, but he tried to play through the injury before being finally ruled on the eve of the one-day series against England.
Although South Africa have not officially given up hope of his inclusion in the first Test starting in a fortnight they will take no risk whatever on his fitness, they are clearly desperate that he plays in the rest of the series
