SA had more than one reason to celebrate at the weekend.

The most important among them was winning a one-day series in Sri Lanka for the first time.

Another was Faf du Plessis's 30th birthday.

So, there might have been a few tender heads bobbing gingerly on the trip from Hambantota, where SA clinched the ODI rubber on Saturday, to Galle, where the test series starts tomorrow.

But even if Hashim Amla had been in the habit of sinking the odd beer, his would not have been among those sore heads.

For the first time tomorrow, Amla will captain SA in a test.

Thus, he will need his sobriety as well as his wits about him.

He is a peerless player and a man beyond reproach, but what kind of captain he will make is anyone's guess.

For one thing, the buck will stop with Amla: he is the appointed captain, not a caretaker. For another, the world will watch for signs that the cares of captaincy are affecting his batting.

In fact, it is far away from a dressing room in which Amla is hailed as something close to a superhero that he will face his greatest test.

If someone as straightforward as Graeme Smith can spend most of his tenure as SA's captain being misunderstood, what chance does Amla have of not having to explain his every move to an unfair degree?

Or he could lead SA to victory in Sri Lanka and the nation's reactionaries will shut up and sit down, at least for now.

What would that take, considering SA have won only one test series there - 21 years ago.