Cape Town - Proteas captain Faf du Plessis believes that the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales will be won by the team with the best bowling line-up - predicting that strike bowlers set to play an important role.
Speaking to the ICC website, Du Plessis confirmed that speedster Dale Steyn remains in the teams plans as South African management spend the next eight months deciding on their best line-up.
"We probably need one more fast bowler. You probably need three fast bowlers in your squad, over the next two series, we'll see who grabs that opportunity," said Du Plessis.
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Du Plessis cited the example of Pakistan at the 2017 Champions Trophy as an example of a team with a strong pace attack proven hard to beat, especially in English conditions.
"I think if you look at Pakistan who won the Champions Trophy, your bowling unit is going to play a massive role," said the South African skipper.
"We went there (Champions Trophy) with probably the best batting line-up in the world - I think we had four of the top ten batters, so we were feeling very confident in the batting unit we had. But the ability to get wickets in those conditions seemed to be the ten percenter, so that's why we're looking at guys who can get you wickets at any stage of a game."
Du Plessis admitted that although picking up wickets in England will be crucial, a balance was needed and a strong as possible batting lineup was also crucial.
"From a batting point of view, try and have as long a batting line-up as you can. That's probably why England will call themselves favourites, because they have a very long batting line-up. It's a little different with our team, we don't have those guys who are all-rounders," he said.
The 2019 World Cup in England and Wales starts on May 30 next year.