South African Test captain Hashim Amla (R) and Dale Steyn (L) arrive at a hotel in Colombo yesterday. South Africa will play three ODIs and two Test Series in Sri Lanka between July 6 to July 28. Right: South African ODI team captain AB de Villiers arrives at a hotel in Colombo yesterday. (AFP)

Agencies/Johannesburg

Newly appointed Test captain Hashim Amla has set his sight on taking South Africa back to the top of the rankings but it’s not something which is at the top of his priorities at the moment. For him, taking the team forward in the right direction and finding a winning formula takes precedence following the retirement of Tests stalwarts Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith.

South Africa will regain the top spot in Tests if they manage to beat Sri Lanka in the two-match series slated to begin from July 16 in Hambantota.

“From a rankings perspective, we have dropped to No 2, but that is not at the forefront of our objectives. We would love to be there [No 1] as soon as possible but with the kind of new make-up team we have, it’s important to find a winning formula first and things will fall into place later,” Amla said before departing for Sri Lanka. However, prior to the two Tests, South Africa will lock horns with the hosts in three one-day internationals starting from July 3. Amla is mentally focused on the ODI series than his captaincy.

The 31-year-old wants to improve Proteas’ record in the Emerald Isle where they have won just two ODIs out of 16.

When they last played in an ODI series in Sri Lanka in 2013, they lost 1-4.

“Although I have had a few weeks to give the captaincy a little bit more thought, nothing much has changed. I think a lot will change once the series starts, but up until then, my focus mentally is on the one-day series.

Fortunately, I was in the UK playing county cricket in preparation for this tour, but in my mind I have been thinking about the ODIs and hopefully we can make amends. The captaincy will come at a later stage,” he said. South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers reckons Sri Lanka as a ‘dangerous shorter-version team’. However, he is confident of improving their record this time. “They are a very dangerous shorter-version team, all-round really, but specifically in T20s and ODIs. They’ve been performing very well in the last five years,” De Villiers said.

“They won a T20 World Cup and they’ve done really well in all their ODIs and World Cups in the past. We get another bite of the cherry and the guys are really hungry. We’re very confident we can do something special in Sri Lanka,” he said.