De Villiers ruled out of India ODIs with injury

South Africa and India will vie for one-day cricket's world No.1 ranking when they meet in a six-match series, starting in Durban on Thursday.

However the Proteas will be without star batsman AB de Villiers for at least the first three matches after he was ruled out with a finger injury.

South Africa are hopeful he will recover to feature in the back-half of the tournament – and the Test matches against Australia that follow.

The ODI series comes after India retained their top ranking in Tests, although second-placed South Africa closed the points gap by winning the series 2-1.

South Africa are top of the ICC's ODI rankings by a slender one point from India. With the points adjusted after each match, there is the potential for the No.1 ranking to change from match to match.

But South African coach Ottis Gibson is less concerned about the rankings than the long-term goal of winning the 2019 Cricket World Cup in England.

South Africa picked a big squad of 15 for the first three games and Gibson said there was a possibility other players could be considered for the last three.

"We're the number one team at the moment but that doesn't mean a lot leading up to a World Cup," said Gibson.

"Winning isn't the be-all and end-all at this stage. There is a fine line and we will try and ensure that whatever team we pick has an equal chance of winning but we have a goal and a vision leading up to the World Cup and we want to expose as many players as possible."

Unlike the Tests, the one-day internationals could be dominated by batsmen, with six of the world's top ten one-day batsmen in action on pitches which, unlike the Tests, should favour aggressive stroke play.

Indian captain Virat Kohli heads the ICC batting list, closely followed by his South African friend and IPL teammate de Villiers.

India vice-captain Rohit Sharma and South Africans Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla are also in the top ten, while India's MS Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan are at 13 and 14 on the list.

India, meanwhile, will look to the recent example of England in Australia, where the tourists overturned a Test series defeat with an emphatic one-day triumph.

India, too, have a biq squad, with only eight of nine of their 17 players having played in the Test series. Nine of the South Africans played in the Tests.

South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khaya Zondo.

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni, Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur. 

Qantas tour of South Africa

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Jon Holland, Jhye Richardson.

Warm-up match v SA Invitational XI, Sahara Park, Benoni, Feb 22-24

First Test Kingsmead, Durban, March 1-5

Second Test St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, March 9-13

Third Test Newlands, Cape Town, March 22-26

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3