South Africa heads into a Cricket World Cup with the top order seemingly in decent form, but the bowlers, usually the backbone of an SA cricket team, are floundering.
An injury to Anrich Nortje and fitness issues for Sisanda Magala have left the fast bowling department struggling.
The Black Caps got stuck into some pretty ordinary bowling in the warm-up match, and this is a major worry ahead of an opening match against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka are among the teams that have been exposed to being bullied by SA fast bowlers in all three formats, but they will be ready to take advantage if the quicks cannot find their range and leave the spinners equally exposed.
Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen have performed the best in recent ODI matches and the Cricket World Cup warm-ups.
The length fast bowlers bowl in white-ball matches in India can prove to be a problem for pacemen who grow up on faster and bouncier pitches.
It is a little strange then, that the two bowlers who tend to drop it short a little more often are the ones who are doing well, and those more prone to pitch it up are struggling.
A particular worry for South Africa is how Kagiso Rabada has gone and he might not be given the new ball as a result.
Getting wickets early is going to be essential in India, where batting will get easier as the ball gets older. The local groundskeepers will be under pressure to produce good batting pitches, so the Cricket World Cup can be a spectacle which is only going to make life more challenging for the bowlers.
Resilience and the ability to bounce back from a pasting could prove to be the qualities that the SA bowlers need to help South Africa into the knockout stages.
The likelihood is that the South Africans will also field a pair of frontline spinners, which means there will be nowhere to hide for the quicks who make the starting XI.
Lizaad Williams has been a late inclusion to the squad and might not be in line to play the first match.
Youn quick Gerald Coetzee is most likely to miss out first up, with Rabada, Ngidi and Jansen looking likely to be the favoured trio of quicks.
If Rabada can find form, South Africa will be able to field a formidable XI in this Cricket World Cup.
