'Incredible' Philander to be decisive: Rogers

Former Test opener Chris Rogers believes metronomic Proteas seamer Vernon Philander will have a major impact on the upcoming series in South Africa, and is expecting a pace-friendly pitch for tomorrow's first Test in Durban.

Philander was equal-top of the wicket-takers list in the recently-completed series against India, taking 15 at 15.86 and conceding a miserly 2.47 runs per over.

The 32-year-old is just 12 wickets short of 200 in Tests and has recently slotted in at No.7 in the batting order to give the South Africans the luxury of picking an extra bowler.

"He's incredible," said Rogers on 91.3 Sport FM, having played three Tests against the right-armer in the corresponding series four years ago.

"With most swing bowlers they tend to angle the seam, so you kind of know which way the ball's going to go. I always found with him, his seam would point directly at you, and you never knew what it was going to do; as a left-hander, was it going to swing back into you? Or was it going to hit the seam and move away? That was his skill.

"He just does enough both ways. You're almost guessing; sometimes you're just hoping the ball hits the bat.

"If the pitches play like I expect them to, he is going to be so valuable. Because not only that, he (also) bowls so straight, he controls the run rate. It's hard to get him away. So he's going to be immensely important.

"And his batting, I think has improved quite a lot over the last little period."

Rogers opened the batting alongside David Warner in Australia's 2-1 triumph in South Africa in February-March 2014, and while Mitchell Johnson flipped the script on the hosts with 12 wickets to hand the tourists the opening Test in Centurion on a pitch with considerable pace and bounce, the 25-Test rep believes it will nonetheless be a similar surface prepared for Durban.

"The wickets in these matches are going to be a bit spicy and I'm looking forward to that, and with two very good attacks, it's going to be challenging for the batsmen," he continued.

"I imagine it's going to be a really tough pitch to bat on. In 2014, the first match was at Centurion, and they produced a really lively one but Mitch Johnson just blew them away. That scared them I think, then they produced flat ones trying to get reverse swing. It didn't work for them then, so I think they're going to stick with the tough pitches and back their four quality bowlers.

"I think it's going to be a low-scoring match, as we saw with the South Africa – India series, but I reckon that's going to be quite exciting. And with the Australian attack, as good as it is, they'll be happy with that too.

"It will all come down to a number of players, and more likely, Davey Warner and Steve Smith. If they can get some runs, I think Australia will win.

"As a batsman this is what you look forward to – the challenge. Anyone can score runs on flat wickets, but it's when you score runs and not many other people in your team score runs, they're the ones you look back on with most pride. Someone like Steve Smith could set himself even further apart (from everyone else), Davey Warner was unbelievable in the last series in South Africa, he's another one.

"It could be one of the others (who dominates with the bat); if they do get runs, particularly someone like (Usman) Khawaja, that will help them in the future no doubt."

Qantas tour of South Africa

South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.

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

Warm-up match: Australia beat South Africa A by five wickets. Report, highlights

First Test Kingsmead, Durban, March 1-5. Live coverage

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

Third Test Newlands, Cape Town, March 22-26. Live coverage

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3. Live coverage