South Africa would be desperately looking to retain the ICC Test Championship mace now that their lead at the top has been reduced to a meagre four points.
The humiliating series defeat in India, despite their hard-fought efforts, would have definitely taken a lot of life from the line-up. Now that England is touring for a four-match series they have the chance to rebound.
The English would also be low on confidence after their series defeat in the UAE and the fact that their key player, Ian Bell, has been dropped for the tour.
A lot of responsibility now rests upon the shoulders of young Joe Root and skipper, Alastair Cook. The inexperience of young players like Nick Crompton, Gary Ballance and Alex Hales might just prove detrimental to England’s chances of a series win, which despite South Africa’s loss to India, actually look quite slim.
Gary Ballance’s inclusion in place of Ian Bell, which has raised many eyebrows, might turn out to be a losing gamble due to his relative inexperience of playing on hard, bouncy tracks.
England would still rely a lot on their fast bowlers to create turmoil in the South African ranks now that the crux of the Proteas batting is short of desirable runs. James Anderson and Stuart Broad, along with Chris Woakes, would most possibly be their preferred choice ahead of most matches with Chris Jordan as their back-up.
Samit Patel’s return to the side makes sense, as England expects to use him as an allrounder.
South Africa will try all they can to glean out a series win, by any sort of margin.
Vernon Philanderer will be missed but the Africans can expect to rattle the relatively inexperienced English, on their familiar home tracks.
Their batting order is extremely dangerous on their home pitches and they would be performing on a whole new different level, as compared to what we have seen in Mohali or Delhi.
Now that Stiann Van Zyl is back in the country, he would again get his chances with the gutsy Dean Elgar.
The thing the English need to remind themselves of is that the Proteas would be at home, and not in India, where they are a different proposition. What England has done so far is simply gamble, which might turn out quite costly against the resilient Proteas.
I think South Africa would remain in the shadows until the Boxing Day, and bring out their A-game on the pitch to torment the English. If I am not too blind, I see South Africa enforcing a bitter thrashing on the English, perhaps by a 3-1 margin.
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