Cape Town - Craig Govender, physiotherapist of the Highveld Lions, will join the Proteas for the first three ODI matches against Pakistan.

Govender will tail Proteas physiotherapist Brandon Jackson for the first ODI, before taking the reins for the second and third matches in Centurion and Johannesburg.

The Proteas’ management are continuing with the same approach they followed with franchise coaches, and have also gone on to include the video analysts around the country.

“The Cricket South Africa (CSA) medical team sees this as a great opportunity for us to create synergy and uniformity between the national team and the rest of the senior representative teams,” Jackson said.

“Craig has been the physio for the SA "A" team for the last two years and we felt that bringing him into the national setup will assist in broadening the information sharing between the two playing levels, as well as create continuity in the way that the players are managed.”

Govender has climbed up the Cricket South Africa (CSA) ranks, having served the National Academy for two years, the representative USSA XI and the SA "A" side.

The 31-year-old originally from Durban has been with the Lions in a full-time capacity for almost four seasons, and is honoured to be able to work in the national team.

“It’s a great honour to be in this environment,” he said. “Having worked with the SA "A" team for a number of seasons its encouraging to see the team work and the effort there is to strengthen the relationships between the National team, Franchises and well as senior representative sides.

“We have seen quite a lot of SA "A" players coming into the Proteas team lately, and I think this initiative will make sure that the same high standards are maintained across the levels.

“The Proteas is the level that most sports physio’s dream of working at, and having a taste of the environment at the top has definitely given me more motivation to work harder.”

Abraham Ramaodi, CSA’s central video analyst is also part of the squad for Sunday’s match.