Overnight rain has left the field a touch waterlogged but the ground staff has done wonderfully well to get the playing surface ready in time.
Durban normally favours the pace bowlers and, to that end, South Africa have left out three of their spin bowling options.
Robin Peterson and the two new members of the squad, Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir miss out on selection.
India are without injured opening batsmen Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and paceman Praveen Kumar.
However, the visitors have been boosted by the inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar, who is playing his first ODI since scoring 200 against South Africa in Gwalior, India in February last year.
Teams
South Africa:
Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Colin Ingram, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, David Miller, Johan Botha, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
India:
Sachin Tendulkar, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain, wk), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel